Nathan Eovaldi certainly didn’t have his “A Stuff” tonight, and he would probably tell you that he didn’t have his “B Stuff” either.

After not having pitched since July 13th in Houston, Eovaldi had to do what good pitchers do best… win without their best stuff.

That is exactly what Eovaldi did as he fired five innings of shutout ball, allowing just three hits while striking out seven.

Eovaldi’s strong start and an eight-run offensive outburst led the Rangers to an 8-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Globe Life Field on Friday night.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we were able to make it work,” Eovaldi said after an effort that saw him work out of multiple jams.

“We were able to get the double play ball in one situation and then a couple big strikeouts. I’m not really sure what was going on out there mechanically. I was all over the place, not getting a lot of first-pitch strikes. Splitter felt good. I was able to use that a lot of the time [when] falling behind in the count, I was able to kinda use that pitch in any big situation to get out of there, and fortunately, we didn’t allow any runs”.

Friday marked the 8th time this season that Eovaldi began an outing with five shutout innings pitched, tying him for the 3rd most in the AL.

For the month of July, Eovaldi went a perfect 4-0, allowing just one run, brining his season ERA to a microscopic 1.50 mark.

“When I’m going out there, I’ve got the five pitches that I’m using and trying to work with and kinda see which one’s working during that game and kinda go with it. Jonah [Heim] and Higgy [Kyle Higashioka] have been doing a great job back there behind the plate. We talk in between innings with [the coaching staff], just trying to read hitters and not get too off track. So far, we’ve been able to have good success and kinda keep going with the stuff that’s working out there at that time. Sometimes it’s the splitter, sometimes it’s the curveball, the cutter has been great, tonight it wasn’t, we were able to rely on the curveball and the splitter when we needed it”.

As Eovaldi was putting up zeros, the Rangers offense was putting runs on the board.

Sam Haggerty started his first game off the IL, scoring a first-inning run after he led off the inning with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on an error and scored on a Marcus Semien sac-fly. In the second, Jonah Heim blasted his 9th home run of the season into the left field seats to make it 2-0 Texas.

In the 4th and 5th, the Rangers got RBI doubles from Wyatt Langford and Haggerty, respectively, before a four-run 8th blew it open.

Texas got hits from six different players and RBI’s from five in yet another strong 1-9 offensive showing.

“I agree,” Bruce Bochy said when asked about the recent depth of the lineup.

“Left-handed pitching has been a little bit of a battle, but when a guy like [Michael Helman] comes up and is doing something to contribute, getting a guy like Sam [Haggerty] back, that’s big. You saw his game tonight.

“It’s all about doing something, battling up there, putting things in play, and they did it tonight”.