As Eovaldi ages, he turns away from overpowering opponents with a fastball and instead relies on deception from the best pitch in his arsenal.

Through a starter’s first 19 outings of a season, Eovaldi’s 1.38 ERA is the fifth-lowest ever, trailing only Bob Gibson (1.06, 1968), Luis Tiant (1.27, 1968), Zack Greinke (1.30, 2015), and Vida Blue (1.37, 1971).

Eovaldi is now up to 13 quality starts on the season -- five of which have come over his last seven outings -- and he sports a 1.76 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 120:21 K:BB across 123 innings this season. His next start is lined up for next weekend at home against the Guardians.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rangers as Rangers Ace Nathan Eovaldi Having One of Best Starts to a Season in MLB History. One of the biggest moves that the Texas Rangers made during the MLB offseason was retaining starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.

Nathan Eovaldi impresses with another scoreless performance, strengthening his Cy Young candidacy with a 1.38 ERA.

Eovaldi dominated the Yankees, allowing just one base runner across eight shutout innings on a night when they mustered just two hits total in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

He wasn't supposed to be the best starting pitcher at baseball at age 35. Then again, he wasn't supposed to become a World Series icon or a Texas Ranger legend, either. What if the Cy Young Award is next?

The Rangers chipped away throughout the game, scoring one run in the third inning and four in the sixth thanks to a huge three-run homer from Wyatt Langford, who had not homered i