Red Sox ace Nathan Eovaldi tosses first career complete game against O’s

Nate Eovaldi adds another line to resume in Red Sox win

The Red Sox were coming off of a nightmare loss to the Orioles when they made their way to Fenway Park early this afternoon, but never fear, Nathan Eovaldi was to be on the mound. Boston’s ace didn’t disappoint, and while it wasn’t a perfect start, it was exactly what the team needed a night after their bullpen imploded. One could even say, it was complete.

That’s right, Red Sox Nation, Nasty Nate tossed his first-ever complete game today! It’s astonishing that he has yet to toss a complete start in his eleven-year career, but we have to remember his massive injury history. Nonetheless, Evo went out there today, knew the assignment, and did the damn thing.

As I said, and as you know, the bullpen absolutely killed us last night. A game the Red Sox had more than in hand was given away when some of our most trusted arms seemingly joined forces to not have their best stuff. Nate knew he needed to give the relievers a day off, and honestly, I think Alex Cora was a bit hesitant to go to the bullpen after last night. So he let his best arm go to work, and none of us were disappointed.

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo was a part of the media that spoke to both Cora and Eovaldi after the start and both manager and pitcher couldn’t have been happier.

“He was great, especially in the second part of the game,” Cora said. “They put good at-bats early on but I think he settled down, started using his fastball a little more.”

Once again, Nate was a victim of the home run, something that has plagued him more through the early parts of this season than ever in years past. Sadly, he leads all of baseball in homers served up and we aren’t even through May yet. At the end of the day, I’m ok with it so as long as he continues to shove in every other sense of the pitching craft.

The month of May has been a very historic month for Nasty Nate as he has set a career-high in strikeouts, notched his 1,000th career whiff, and now tossed his first complete game. Not bad for a guy with over a decade of service time and a pair of Tommy John surgeries under his belt. Better late than never as far as today’s efforts are concerned and he only got better as the game went on.

“It definitely means a lot to me, especially with how the game’s changing now, the injuries I’ve had in the past,” Eovaldi said. “I know they’re having my best interests there by protecting me, but it means a lot to be able to go out there. Everybody wants to go out there and finish the games they start. For that one to be my first, it means a lot to me.”

Nate’s not wrong, in the era of analytics and sabermetrics, a starting pitcher rarely does what they were once employed to do. While we saw a flurry of no-hitters in recent times, it’s still a bit of a shock when a pitcher can finish what he started. Seeing Evo do that today was an absolute blast and something I wish we could’ve seen more than once with a Red Sox uniform.

This is the second complete game the Red Sox have posted recently as Nick Pivetta tossed on just a little over a week ago. Things are looking up for the boys of Boston as they’re starting to play more as how we expected and not what we saw through the opening parts of the season.

The pitching has been far better than any of us could’ve expected despite the few hiccups here and there. Eovaldi is a big part of those efforts and has been the big arm in the rotation for several years at this point. Now in his final year in the Boston, he’s aiming to perform to a level that can not only earn him another fine contract but possibly one that keeps him at Fenway Park.

“A.C. trusted me to go out and finish the game,” the righty said. “It means a lot to me.”