Nathan Eovaldi escapes jam vs. Astros, a breakdown
What Happened
Nathan Eovaldi, the starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, escapes a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Houston Astros in this pivotal ALCS game. The Astros have put together a rally, as Michael Brantley leads off the inning with a single, followed by a base hit from Alex Bregman. Rookie shortstop Jeremy Peña then reaches on an infield single, loading the bases with no outs. Eovaldi, known for his electric fastball and array of offspeed pitches, quickly goes to work. He mixes his pitches, constantly changing speeds and locations, keeping the Astros' hitters off-balance. Eovaldi starts Yordan Alvarez with an outside cutter, then comes inside with a blazing fastball. He follows that up with a diving splitter on the outer half, and then elevates a four-seamer up in the zone. The sequence leaves Alvarez flailing, and he goes down swinging. Next up is Jose Altuve, the Astros' diminutive second baseman and one of the game's most dangerous hitters. Eovaldi starts him with a big, slow curveball on the inside corner for a called strike. He then blows an elevated fastball past Altuve, who fouls it back. Eovaldi sets up the next pitch perfectly, challenging Altuve up and in with another heater before dropping a wicked splitter on the outside corner. Altuve can only watch as the pitch dives out of the zone, and he's caught looking for the second out. With the crowd at Minute Maid Park growing increasingly nervous, Eovaldi faces Alex Bregman, the Astros' All-Star third baseman. He pounds the inside part of the plate with a fastball, then goes outside with another heater. Bregman hits a soft grounder to third base, and the Red Sox infielder makes a clean play to retire the side and end the threat. Eovaldi emerges from the inning pumped up, his fist-pumping celebration showcasing his competitive fire. The Red Sox dugout erupts, relieved to have avoided disaster thanks to their starter's brilliant pitching performance under pressure. This sequence exemplifies Eovaldi's ability to execute his game plan and make critical pitches when the stakes are highest, ultimately preserving a crucial lead for Boston in this hard-fought ALCS matchup.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentEvaldi escaped a bases-loaded no-out jam with some beautiful pitching in this ALCS game in the
bottom of the fifth inning. This breakdown is brought to you by SeatGeek. Brantley's going to
start the inning off for the Astros. 3-2 pitch, puts it in play, gets a single because that's
just what he does. That's what you do, baby. That's what you do. Yep, Bregman knows he's a
hitman. Okay, next up, we got a base hit right up the middle on a 1-1 pitch. So, runners on first,
runners on second, they're getting excited. Pena, Pena, Pena, Pena steps up. He puts the ball
in play, and he'd been so good at third base. Had a lot of plays at third base, but now they're in
a jam. Yeah! Ha! Ha! So, now Evaldi's going to get to work to escape this jam, and he's changing
his pitches and his location constantly. They can't get comfortable. He's going, watch this,
he goes outside with a little cutter,
wider, and then inside with a fastball. So, outside, inside, soft, hard. Then he's going to
go outside with the split finger fastball, so it's a secondary pitch, and then he goes outside again
with the real fastball. Really good pitching there. I love that double up. And then up top
for the fastball, 2-2, and now curveball outside gets the strike. Oh! And watch how much that final
pitch plays off the fastball.
Just riding that same line. One, stay straight. You can see why he has to protect. The other,
drops. Okay, Altuve comes up. This is my favorite sequence he did.
He goes inside, big curveball, 79 miles per hour,
slow, inside, gets called strike one.
So, off of that, he's going to go hard,
outside. Fastball, outside, Altuve
fouls it back. Now he's in the driver's seat. He's 0-2.
Now he's going to set up the next pitch. So he's going to go hard,
to double up the fastball, but go way high and in. Now, I don't know if he wanted to go that high,
but he went soft inside, hard away, hard inside. What's he going to go next? Splitter away. Nasty
pitch. Altuve sits down. Another strikeout. Fans are getting nervous. They're getting nervous. Not
the Rangers kids. That's a splitter. See the grip there? Splitter. So what that does is it kind of
just tumbles out of his hand. It's really a version of a changeup. They'll call it a split
change, but it's going to tumble, have some downwards movement on it, and it plays off his
fastball really well. This is one of my favorite overlays I've stumbled into in a while, and you
can see how devastating that is. That's crazy. Look at the arm action, the delivery, the release
point, all the same, and then they're riding that same line for so
long, and one just dips. Really nice pitching by Evaldi. Okay, he still has one out to go.
Base is loaded. Bregman's up. Fastball inside, so then they go fastball outside. That's all they
needed. Third baseman says, I got this one. I won't mess it up. Evaldi is fired up. This guy
is not not fired up, but Evaldi, he is fired up. Got out of the jam. This breakdown was brought to
you by SeatGeek. Use code JOMBOY at SeatGeek for $20 off.
Your first purchase. Go see a game. Enjoy the pitching inside, outside, fast, soft,
fast inside, soft inside. It was awesome. Good job, Nathan.