If the Yankees want to reach the ALDS for the fifth year in a row, they will have to get past former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi and the Red Sox in Tuesday night’s Wild Card Game.
Eovaldi, who spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons with New York, has largely dominated his former team since his Yankee tenure, though the Bombers jumped all over him the last time they faced off, with the Yanks hanging seven runs on the righty in 2.2 innings at Fenway to cap off a critical three-game sweep on Sept. 24.
Heading into that start, Eovaldi had made five starts against the Yanks in 2021, and pitched to a 2.01 ERA in that span, striking out 34 batters in 31.1 innings of work. If the Yankees want to survive a one-game playoff at Fenway, they will have to solve the 2021 All-Star, who led the league with 32 starts and finished with a 3.75 ERA.
The Yanks will need a boost from their biggest bat in Aaron Judge, whose walk-off single on Sunday sealed a spot in Tuesday’s Wild Card Game. Judge has eight hits in 20 career at-bats against Eovaldi, including a home run and a pair of doubles, good for a .400 batting average and a 1.079 OPS. Anthony Rizzo has also had success against Eovaldi in a smaller sample size, collecting five hits in nine at-bats, including three doubles. Giancarlo Stanton has an .831 OPS two home runs in 27 career at-bats, while Gio Urshela a home run and an .846 OPS in just 15 at-bats.
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Others have struggled badly against Eovaldi. Joey Gallo is 1-for-7 with three strikeouts, while Brett Gardner has just five hits in 28 at-bats, good for a .179 batting average. Gleyber Torres is just 7-for-29 with one extra-base hit, while Rougned Odor, who could get the start with DJ LeMahieu out, is only 2-for-14.
Eovaldi was brilliant in his last start of the season, striking out seven across six shutout innings against the Orioles, who he allowed seven hits in five innings against just 10 days prior. He will be looking for a similar rebound against the Yanks, who hope last time out was a code finally cracked rather than a blip on the radar of an otherwise history of dominance when it comes to Eovaldi against the Bombers.
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