CLEVELAND -- Nathan Eovaldi labored on Friday night at Progressive Field. He threw a season-high 106 pitches, capped off by a 77.7 mph curveball that Bo Naylor sent into center field for the final out of the sixth inning.

It wasn¡¯t the cleanest of games for the Rangers¡¯ ace, but he allowed just three runs in a team-best 12th quality start as Texas beat Cleveland, 5-3, in the series opener. The Rangers had lost each of Eovaldi¡¯s three previous starts.

¡°Physically, I felt good,¡± Eovaldi said. ¡°I wish I would have been able to execute a few more pitches. I felt like they worked the counts really well, and I definitely had to work out there. The boys put up four early in the game, and I let them get back in. But we were able to lead it there.¡±

Eovaldi noted multiple times that the Guardians are a team that sees a lot of pitches and fouls them off more than your average team. That¡¯s part of what makes facing them so difficult for a starting pitcher to go deep into a game.

¡°It¡¯s definitely a challenge,¡± Eovaldi said. ¡°I feel like that's one of the reasons they're playing so well in the first place. They make you work out there. You have to be able to execute pitches. As a starter, you want to try to go seven innings.

¡°They do a good job of just fighting and scraping across as many runs as they can.¡±

But like always, Eovaldi was able to limit the damage as much as possible, even as Cleveland tried to chip away at the four-spot Texas put up in the second inning. The right-hander allowed a run in each of the second, third and fourth innings before retiring the final six batters he faced to finish off his outing.

And the defense never gets tired of playing behind Eovaldi, limiting the damage behind him.

¡°I¡¯m tired of the ball going through the four-hole,¡± first baseman Nathaniel Lowe joked. ¡°I feel like if he gives up a hit through the four-hole, it's always a couple inches past my glove. So I'd like to make a couple more of those plays for him. But he was so good at limiting damage today. He really kept us in that game even though we were ahead, so it felt good.¡±

Eovaldi may have been a part of the plethora of pitching injuries over the last two seasons, but he¡¯s almost certainly been the leader in the clubhouse and on the pitching staff through that entire time.

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Eovaldi has had two injured list stints in his time with the Rangers: July 30-Sept. 5, 2023 (forearm strain) and May 3-28, 2024 (groin strain). No time on the injured list is ideal in any situation, but Eovaldi has been the rock of Texas¡¯ rotation since Jacob deGrom went down in late April of last season.

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Even after the Rangers acquired Max Scherzer at last year¡¯s Trade Deadline in a deal with the Mets, Eovaldi was still the ace all the way through the postseason run. He¡¯s consistently given the Rangers the quality innings they¡¯ve needed throughout two long seasons.

¡°Nate's never going to change,¡± manager Bruce Bochy said. ¡°He's going to give you everything he's got. He's a winner, we got to see it last year, and carried that right into the postseason. He went out there today like he normally does. That's what you love about him. They chipped away, but he didn't cave in and ended up having two really good innings there at the end. He battled through it.¡±

Though Eovaldi is nearing free agency once again, that¡¯s also what makes him so important to this Rangers clubhouse as their postseason hopes dwindle.

Bochy, who has never been to the playoffs in the season following a World Series appearance, has emphasized how important it is for the Rangers to stay focused, despite what the mathematical possibilities of the postseason are.

¡°That's always one of the challenges, right, blocking the outside noise,¡± Eovaldi said. ¡°You've got to be able to go out there and play your game, play comfortable. I think that we haven't really been playing comfortable all season.

¡°Regardless where we are in the standings, we go out there and win, as simple as that. You go out there and you win, and see what happens.¡±