NEW YORK — The perception about New York Yankees flamethrower Nathan Eovaldi is his stuff is hard enough to be unhittable at times if he can get it by opposing hitters.
The belief is in spite of the fact he has allowed 158 hits in 136 innings this season, led the National League in hits last season for the Miami Marlins and often struggles to get past the sixth inning.
During Wednesday’s 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins, the belief approached reality.
Eovaldi retired the first 16 hitters, losing his no-hit bid and perfect game on a soft bloop single over third baseman Chase Headley’s head into shallow left field. The hit came on a pitch clocked at 101 mph and was among several pitches clocked in triple digits.
“I felt really good today,” Eovaldi said after picking up his team-leading 13th win and eighth in a row. “I felt locked in from the first pitch.”
Eovaldi’s first three pitches were out of the strike zone to center fielder Aaron Hicks. He threw 117 more, ending the longest outing of his career in terms of pitches by getting left fielder Shane Robinson to ground out on a pitch clocked at 101.6.
Eovaldi’s last pitch came an inning after he made a few mistakes such as being too fine to second baseman Brian Dozier, resulting in a walk on a full count and leaving a fastball up first baseman Joe Mauer, who turned it into a two-run single to right field.
“I tried to go back foot in with it and I left it middle in,” Eovaldi said. “Maybe it wasn’t the best pitch selection but I just got to be a little wiser in that situation.
Being unwise with pitch selection to Mauer was about the only thing to go wrong for Eovaldi, who is a cheap young arm for the Yankees.
According to manager Joe Girardi and Eovaldi, it’s a combination of an evolving split-fingered fastball and the discrepancy in velocity.
“He’s got such a discrepancy in speeds and movement,” Girardi said. “We saw fastballs at 100 today and you saw curveballs (at) 76 with a split that’s 88 to 90 where the bottom falls out. It’s just really a tough combination.”