ARLINGTON -- First pitch was at 7:09 p.m. CT.
By 7:09:05, Nathan Eovaldi's four-seam fastball was launched a Statcast-projected 350 feet, just beyond the right-field wall at Globe Life Field by Mariners infielder Brendan Donovan. The Rangers, with another co-ace on the mound, were staring down a 1-0 hole in the first inning for the second night in a row.
Entering the day, Eovaldi had allowed 11 runs over his first 8 2/3 innings in 2026. A bounceback outing against a divisional rival would do wonders.
And Eovaldi did what Eovaldi does: He buckled down to finish the first inning, concluding with a swinging strikeout of Josh Naylor for his 1,500th career strikeout. It wasn’t the prettiest start the rest of the way, but he earned his first quality start of the year and carried the Rangers to a 3-2 win over the Mariners to secure a series victory.
“I just kind of try to keep going out there and doing my job,” Eovaldi said. “It was definitely a huge win for us. Obviously it wasn't a great start, [with] that first-pitch home run, but I had to bear down to battle after that. I thought [catcher Kyle Higashioka] did a great job behind the plate tonight, made some really good plays and a big series win.”
The victory marked the Rangers’ first series win against the Mariners since Sept. 22-24, 2023, when they swept their AL West rivals. Texas has been 0-9-0 in series play against Seattle since that sweep.
“It’s hugely important,” Higashioka said. “Them and the Astros are definitely our biggest rivals. Anytime we can, we can beat these guys, it feels good, because they played us really tough, especially the last couple years. It gets tiring losing the same team.”
Like every Rangers-Mariners matchup, it was a pitchers' duel at Globe Life Field as Texas faced off against its own Achilles heel, George Kirby.
In the win, the Rangers scored more runs (three) against Kirby than they did in the previous three seasons combined (two in six starts from 2023-25). In his 11 starts against Texas, Tuesday night was the first time he had allowed three runs. He hadn’t allowed a homer in his previous nine starts against them.
Higashioka dealt the decisive blow with a two-run homer in the fifth inning. That ended a streak of 61 innings against Texas without allowing a home run for Kirby. Higashioka said that was maybe the only good pitch to hit that he’s ever seen from Kirby in all their matchups.
"Kirby is good,” manager Skip Schumaker emphasized. “He's dominated a lot of teams. He is one of the better pitchers in the league, so it's not just against us -- although, yeah, we do have trouble against him. I've seen the numbers. I've seen the matchups against some of our really good hitters. … He's just a complete pitcher, and always a tough matchup."
Knocking Kirby around for once -- even just a little, and even in a complete game -- is good. But the big win of the night for the Rangers was getting Eovaldi back on track. He felt like his biggest issue in those first two outings was two-strike hits and two-out rallies. He was able to limit those as much as possible on Tuesday.
Nobody in the Rangers’ clubhouse -- least of all Eovaldi himself -- was truly worried after his shaky first two starts against the Phillies and Orioles. But getting right was about being honest with himself, Eovaldi explained.
“I’m pretty hard on myself to begin with,” Eovaldi said. “Sometimes you feel like you're pitching better than the results -- even tonight, I had way too many hits with 0-2 or 1-2 counts. I had to bear down and make some good pitches and get out of the innings. Those are the little things that I got to be better at -- just controlling and attacking the hitters. The results, they're good tonight, obviously coming out on top, but I feel like I should have done better.”