Eovaldi Scratched Before Rangers Game Tonight in Arizona

Nathan Eovaldi was scratched from rangers game tonight in Arizona after reporting left side tightness, and Texas immediately had to turn the start over to a bullpen plan. The Rangers are sending him for imaging, a move that could shape the pitching staff beyond one night.

Jakob Junis Takes The First Innings

Jakob Junis handled the first couple innings of the impromptu bullpen game. That changed the assignment for Texas before the night even settled into a normal starter-reliever pattern, with the Rangers having to cover the game without the pitcher originally lined up to take the ball.

Skip Schumaker said the bullpen should be well rested. That was a reasonable place for the club to be after using three relievers behind Jack Leiter on Saturday, when Gavin Collyer was the only one to throw more than 13 pitches.

Texas Rotation Gets Shuffled

The Rangers had not altered their rotation before the scratch, with Jacob deGrom, Eovaldi, Leiter, MacKenzie Gore and Kumar Rocker listed as the regular starters. Losing Eovaldi on short notice forces the staff to absorb a change that was not part of the plan when Monday began.

Texas entered play Monday at 19-21 with the sixth-best ERA in baseball and an MLB-low 2.80 ERA from the bullpen. Those numbers made the setback sharper: the club had just put together consecutive shutouts of a hot Cubs lineup, then had to open Monday without one of the arms it expected to rely on most.

Jacob Latz Brings Recent Form

Jacob Latz has seized the closer role after Texas opened the season with a committee approach. He has allowed only two runs across 20 2/3 innings, and he recorded the save in four of his last five appearances.

That matters because the bullpen had already been carrying more of the load. Latz was the Rangers' only reliever on Sunday and threw 20 pitches over two scoreless innings behind deGrom's seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, leaving the club with one more moving part to manage after Eovaldi went down with the scratch.

Eovaldi's season line was 4.15 ERA, and he had held the Yankees to one run over 15 innings in two recent starts, with Texas winning both games. If the imaging leads to a longer absence, the Rangers would be asked to replace not just a scheduled starter, but a pitcher who had been one of the steadier pieces in the rotation before Monday's change.