Nathan Eovaldi prevailed in a pitchers’ duel with Justin Verlander, Wyatt Langford had an RBI double among three hits, and the Texas Rangers opened a three-game road series with a 2-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.
Chris Martin, Robert Garcia and Luke Jackson combined with Eovaldi on a four-hit shutout, helping the Rangers get even at 2-2 on former Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s six-game reunion tour of Northern California.
Eovaldi (2-2), whose only other win this season came in a complete-game shutout, worked the first six innings, allowing three hits and a walk. He struck out seven.
The Giants got just one runner into scoring position against the right-hander, that occurring in the fifth when LaMonte Wade Jr. led off with a single and took second on a one-out wild pitch. But Eovaldi, ahead just 1-0 at the time, got Tyler Fitzgerald to ground out and Mike Yastrzemski to fly out, ending the threat.
Langford gave the Rangers their 1-0 lead with his two-out double in the third, scoring Jake Burger, who had led off the inning with a double.
Still seeking his first win as a Giant, Verlander (0-2) kept the score at 1-0 until the sixth, when Josh Smith singled, Langford advanced him to third with his second double, and former Giant Joc Pederson singled.
Verlander completed the inning without allowing another run and was pulled at that point, charged with two runs on five hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Martin allowed a leadoff single to Wilmer Flores in the seventh, Garcia struck out all three batters he faced bridging the eighth and ninth, and Jackson got the final two outs with just 11 pitches, completing the Rangers’ fourth shutout of the season.
Jackson, who began last season with the Giants, was credited with his eighth save.
The three combined doubles by Langford and Burger were the only extra-base hits in the game. The Rangers out-hit the Giants 7-4.
The shutout defeat was San Francisco’s fourth of the season, the third at home. The Giants fell to 3-2 on a seven-game homestand.
