Nathan Eovaldi showed the heart of a champion Friday night (and early Saturday morning), and he left a lasting impression on his Boston Red Sox teammates in the process.
After tossing a scoreless eighth inning in each of the first two games of the World Series, Eovaldi hurled 97 pitches over the final six frames of the Red Sox’s 18-inning loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series.
Aside from moving at least one Red Sox player to tears, Eovaldi’s gutsy performance wound up serving as inspiration in Saturday’s Game 4, which saw the Red Sox overcome a 4-0 deficit en route to a 9-6 victory at Dodger Stadium.
For Brock Holt and Joe Kelly, they didn’t have to wrack their brains for motivation when the going got tough.
"What Eovaldi did last night was one of the most impressive thing we have ever seen on a baseball field, all of us in uniform we took that and didn't want to let that performance wither away. That was part of tonight." – Holt
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) October 28, 2018
Joe Kelly: “I woke up this morning sore. Then I thought about Nate.”
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) October 28, 2018
The Red Sox likely were even more jacked up when they discovered Eovaldi told manager Alex Cora that he was “ready to go” for Game 4, which kicked off roughly 15 hours after he left it all on the mound. The fireballer didn’t see action Saturday night, but now with a day of rest under his belt, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him appear in Game 5 as Boston looks to clinch a World Series title.
