Red Sox: Nathan Eovaldi can become a Boston legend with Wild Card win

Nathan Eovaldi can cement his Red Sox legacy tonight

What a wild ride this past season was, my friends! We saw the Red Sox dominate the entire first half of the season just to go and make the second half of the year more stressful than it ever needed to be. Now, it all comes down to one game. Win and you’re in, lose and it’s a long cold winter wondering, “what if?” Boston will be sending Nathan Eovaldi to the mound and the righty has a chance to cement his legacy as a Red Sox postseason legend tonight.

Nasty Nate is more than familiar with the Yankees and despite the Bronx Bombers touching him up something fierce in his last outing against them, he still has the upper hand. In his six starts against New York in 2021, he went 2-2 with a 3.71 ERA with a 1.235 WHIP and a 9.0 K/9. Yeah, they may have the most recent win over the fireballer, but he’s got zero fear when it comes to the Pinstripes.

This isn’t the first time that Nate will be dancing with the Yanks in the postseason and for that, we’ve gotta go back to 2018. You remember 2018, ya know, the year where the Red Sox dominated from start to finish and raised another Commissioner’s Trophy. Well, Nate made an appearance in each round of the playoffs that year and that’s when he earned his first entry into Boston sports lore.

The right-hander tossed seven solid innings that night against the Yankees holding them to just five hits and one earned run while striking out five. While most will remember his 2018 postseason for what he did against the Dodgers, that route against the Bombers was the first step into his Red Sox legacy. Since then he’s received a new contract and has had some ups and downs, that is until 2021.

This season has been without a doubt the best of his entire career. Not many pitchers will have that career year after two Tommy John surgeries, as well as, multiple maintenance procedures, but Nate’s done it. In his tenth season in the Majors, Eovaldi led the American League in starts (32) and FIP (2.79), while leading the entire big leagues in BB/9 (1.7).

The Red Sox righty didn’t miss his chance to put this team on his back and has grown into the ace this staff needs. His strong starts, especially down the final stretch of the season, got his name into the Cy Young conversation. When all is said and done he may not receive many if any votes, but the fact that he was able to even get his foot into the door is pretty impressive on its own.

Eovaldi relied heavily on his fastball in 2021 at a strong 42.4% of the time. As we all know, you can’t just use the heat without having something to set it up, that’s where the rest of his arsenal comes into play. Nate would also mix in his curveball (18.8%), Slider (13.7%), split-finger (12.7%), and cutter (12.5%).

It’s his ability to throw any of these pitches at any time that makes his fastball that much more dangerous. Oh. and the fact that he can hit 100mph on the radar gun any time that he sees fit. To keep guys like Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge at bay in tonight’s Wild Card clash, he’ll have to keep them guessing with every trip to the batter’s box.

What better way to end the best season of his career than by knocking out Boston’s biggest rival? 2018 was an incredible way for Nathan to introduce himself to Red Sox Nation but 2021 has the chance to cement his Boston postseason legacy. If he can go out tonight and shut down a very dangerous Yankee lineup en route to sending them home for the winter, his place in history will be stamped. It all comes down to this, one final showdown between two rivals to decide an entire season’s worth of work.