For the first time in 657 days, right-hander Nathan Eovaldi took the mound in a major-league game Wednesday night.
Eovaldi, who missed the entire 2017 season and the start of the 2018 season with his second career Tommy John surgery, started for the Tampa Bay Rays against the Oakland Athletics (GameTracker) on Wednesday. It was his first appearance in a big-league game since August 10, 2016, when he was still a member of the New York Yankees.
And things could not have gone any better.
Eovaldi struck out four and walked one in six no-hit innings in his return to MLB. He was on a pitch limit and was removed after throwing only 70 pitches.
Eovaldi got stretched out to 71 pitches in his final minor-league rehab start last week, though they were 71 stressful pitches. He allowed eight runs on 10 hits in four innings for Tampa's Triple-A affiliate. Furthermore, Eovaldi was recently shut down with a rib cage muscle issue. Even with the no-hitter going, the Rays were smart to protect him physically.
The Rays signed Eovaldi to a one-year contract worth $2 million with a $2 million club option during the 2016-17 offseason. They essentially paid him $2 million to monitor his Tommy John rehab last year, and if they were pleased with his progress, they would exercise the option and keep him for 2018. That's exactly what happened. He now joins their modified four-man rotation.
Right-hander Wilmer Font, who had allowed 31 hits in 17 innings going into Wednesday's game, replaced Eovaldi in the seventh inning. The combined no-hit bid was lost when Jed Lowrie stroked a solid one-out single back up the middle in the seventh.
