Nathan Eovaldi was the tough-luck loser in Game 3, but his incredible performance undoubtedly earned him respect from his baseball peers.
Eovaldi headed back to the dugout understandably upset after Max Muncy's walk-off home run in the 18th inning. There, he was picked up by David Price and the rest of his teammates, who were sure to let him know just how unbelievable he was.
Players and coaches from both sides were awestruck by Eovaldi's effort. Game 3 starting pitcher Rick Porcello said the performance had him crying after the game.
“I felt privileged to be able to watch what Nathan Eovaldi did,” Porcello said. “That was the most incredible pitching performance I’ve ever seen.”
“After the game was over I started crying. He literally gave everything he had on every single pitch.”
Jackie Bradley Jr., who hit a game-tying solo home run in the loss, was also touched by what he saw from Eovaldi in Game 3.
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"Can't put it into words," Bradley said. "Tremendous. Amazing. Spectacular. I want him on my side 10 out of 10 times. Nothing but love. Nothing but love."
On the other side, even three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw admired what he saw from his opponent.
"It was really, really impressive," Kershaw said of Eovaldi's outing. "Just pitching in games 1 and 2, one day off. I know he's pitched in the bullpen some, but he's basically a starter this year. So to do that, it's incredible. His stuff speaks for itself, obviously, but what he's able to do. I played with Nate over here for a little bit, and he's just freakishly strong. Obviously has an incredible arm. But just to be able to do that says a lot about him. It's really impressive."
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts compared Eovaldi's performance to that of Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax.
"I appreciate everything about what he did last night," Roberts said. "I'm on the other side but I'm a baseball fan, I'm a sports fan. And when you see people like that perform at the highest level and to stay focused, appreciating that that was three out of four for him, to go 90-plus pitches, hold his stuff, use his mix, and take three at-bats I think last night and still keep going and give his team a chance to win, those are moments that don't come by very often.
"I think one of our players mentioned it, in recent memory, what Bumgarner did in the World Series. And obviously you can talk about Sandy Koufax, who was there last night, and guys like that who did it more often as far as kind of pitching three games. But in recent times it just doesn't happen. And so it was pretty special."
Dodgers Game 3 hero Max Muncy took time out of his celebration to compliment the pitcher he hit the walkoff homer off of.
Just for good measure, Eovaldi also received kind words from Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez and Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer.
And guess what? Eovaldi told Alex Cora that he was ready to go for Game 4, because of course he did. . .
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