Red Sox: Nathan Eovaldi sets two strikeout milestones in the same game

Boston Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi racked up the strikeouts

Nathan Eovaldi bounced back from a historically horrible start, undoubtedly his worst as a member of the Boston Red Sox, with one of his best outings of the season. Eovaldi struck out a career-high 11 batters against the Seattle Mariners while reaching another career milestone along the way.

The right-hander struck out Julio Rodriguez to begin the second inning, getting the rookie phenom to swing and miss at a splitter. This marked the 1,000 strikeout of Eovalidi’s career.

That was his first strikeout for the day but far from his last. Eovaldi notched his 11th strikeout for the second out of the seventh inning, right before allowing the base hit that ended his afternoon. Austin Davis struck out the next batter to escape the inning.

Eovaldi has recorded several 10-strikeout games in his career, including two last season. His most recent was August 11 of last season against the Tampa Bay Rays.

He matched that career-high by striking out Rodriguez to end the sixth inning. A thin Red Sox bullpen needed a long outing from their starter and Eovaldi obliged by nearly making it through seven innings, allowing him the opportunity he needed to record that elusive 11th strikeout.

The Houston Astros knocked Eovalidi out in the second inning of his last appearance after he tied a major league record by allowing five home runs in the same inning. It was the first time this season that Eovaldi failed to record a strikeout, forcing him to wait another turn through the rotation to reach 1,000 for his career.

Eovaldi was back on his game on Sunday against Seattle. He did allow his major league-leading 15th home run of the season, which already matches his total from last year. However, that was one of the very few mistakes he made in an otherwise dominant effort.

The two-run homer produced the only runs against Eovaldi over 6 2/3 innings. He allowed four hits and a walk to go along with his 11 strikeouts.

Eovaldi threw 69 of his 101 pitches for strikes, including first-pitch strikes to 19 of the 25 batters he faced. 17 were swinging strikes and seven of his strikeouts were on a swinging strike three.

The splitter was his primary put-away pitch for the strikeouts but Eovaldi also struck out batters with his four-seam fastball, cutter and curveball.

While he departed with the lead, Eovaldi wouldn’t get credited for a well-deserved win since Hansel Robles blew the save by allowing a 9th-inning home run to Eugenio Suarez to tie the game. It’s the sixth time this season that Red Sox relievers have blown a save in the 9th inning or later.

The silver lining to a blown save is that it set the Red Sox up for an exciting walk-off win in the 10th inning. Franchy Cordero came through with a grand slam to send the Fenway crowd home happy. It was the first extra-innings win of the season for a Red Sox club that has been walked off five times by opponents.

The Red Sox will take a win any way they can get it but Eovaldi deserved the credit for his masterpiece.