Nathan Eovaldi’s eight inning gem powered the New York Yankees to a 1-0 win over the Houston Astros in a pitcher’s duel at Yankee Stadium.
Yankees closer Andrew Miller (W, 2-2, 1.99 ERA) was the winning pitcher, but the star of the show was Nathan Eovaldi who is 8-0 with a 2.93 ERA in his last 12 starts. On the season he is 13-2 with a 4.00 ERA. It is Nathan Eovaldi’s fourth career start with eight or more innings pitched and giving up zero runs. It is his first, however, as a member of the Yankees. In Eovaldi’s first 13 starts this season, he went 5-2 with a 5.12 ERA with an opponent average of .329. In his last 12, Eovaldi has gone 8-0 with a 2.93 ERA and an opponent batting average of .235.
The only run of the game came after the Yankees loaded the bases with two walks and a wild pitch. Prior to Carlos Beltran walking to the plate, the Astros went to reliever Chad Qualls to try to get them out of the inning after Oliver Perez loaded the bases. Carlos Beltran took the Qualls pitch to center where Carlos Gomez caught it and Brett Gardner tagged from third on the play to score and win the game.
It is the first time the Yankees have pitched a shutout and walked off in the same game since the Yankees took down the Boston Red Sox in 15 innings in 2009. It’s the fourth walk-off win for the Yankees this season.
Both starting pitchers pitched absolute gems tonight, with Eovaldi going eight strong innings giving up four hits and striking out seven. Scott Feldman started for the Astros and also went eight shutout innings, giving up six hits, no walks and striking out six.
Eovaldi and Feldman both benefited from stellar defense behind them. Eovaldi got a clutch strike 'em out throw 'em out double play from catcher Brian McCann, and Feldman got Chase Headley to fly out to Carlos Gomez who nabbed Brian McCann with a beautiful throw as he tried to tag up and score. Stephen Drew also made a great play to recover from a miscue in the top of the fifth when the ball off the bat of Hank Conger hit off his glove and recovered in time for the out, which was reviewed and called out.
“It’s a game that we have to win," said Joe Girardi. "With the bases loaded and no one out - the guy (Carlos Beltran) who's coming up big a lot over the last couple of weeks came up in that spot and got it done."
With the Toronto Blue Jays not playing tonight, the Yankees gained a half game in the AL East standings making them tied at the top. The Baltimore Orioles dropped their fifth-straight game and are now seven games out of the division.
Tomorrow the Astros and Yankees go back at it in the second game of this three-game set. The Astros send AL Cy Young candidate Dallas Kuechel (14-6, 2.37 ERA) to the mound trying to get them back on the right track, while the Yankees go with Ivan Nova (5-5, 3.72 ERA) who is making his second career start against the Astros.