Healthy Debate- Is Nathan Eovaldi The Best Postseason Pitcher In Baseball?

Nasty Nate is at it again. The Rangers just wiped the floor with the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card round. The biggest reason for that was the Rangers' pitching, a question mark coming into this game was lights out. Eovaldi threw 6.2 innings of 1 run ball, and seemed in control the whole way. We should've seen this coming from Eovaldi, but given that his ERA since coming off the IL was over seven, it was hard for me to expect him to go back to pitching like an ace. October changes you, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. But with that performance today, not only did Eovaldi help the Rangers advance to the ALDS, he may have solidified himself as the best active postseason pitcher in baseball.

My criteria for postseason dominance is pretty simple. I need a pitcher who has had great postseason starts in more than one October. More often than not, Randy Johnson was pretty bad in the postseason, but because of 2001, he's remembered as being something of a legend. I understand that. Johnson was incredible and helped carry the Diamondbacks to the championship in 2001, but when you look at Eovaldi's résumé, this is not the third straight October for him in which he's been dynamite. In 2018, he was the Red Sox hero, posting a 1.61 ERA in 6 appearances, with his best performance being a loss out of the bullpen in the 18-inning game against the Dodgers. That may have legitimately been the greatest performance I've ever seen by a pitcher in a losing effort. 

Eovaldi was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card game in 2021 against the Yankees. He was solid the rest of that October, though he did take the loss pitching out of the bullpen in game four of the ALCS, which inflated his ERA. Two years later, he went out and shoved against the Rays as a member of the Rangers. His career postseason ERA now sits at 2.90.

This blog could look silly by next week. If Eovaldi goes out and gets popped against the Orioles, I may have some explaining to do. But it's a fun thing to talk about because I don't think he has ever been considered an ace pitcher at any point in his career except in October. He takes a different form in the postseason. Today was a hell of a turnaround, considering he's been a disaster for a month. Some guys were just made for the postseason.