Ex-Dodgers flourish for Tampa for one night

Phil Gurnee ♦ May 31, 2018 ♦ Leave a comment

Three ex-Dodgers who now all pitch for Tampa and had seen nothing but tough times put all that behind them for one night as the three combined to pitch a one-hit shutout over the Oakland Athletics.

First up was Nathan Eovaldi the fireballing right-hander who was traded by the Dodgers to the Marlins almost exactly six years ago for Hanley Ramirez. One of Ned’s best deals, it gave the Dodgers a slugging presence until Hanley left via free agency.  Eovaldi had been part of the Dodger rotation in 2012 at the age of twenty-two and looked to have a bright future ahead of him.  That has never quite happened but he did have a record of 14 – 3 for the NYY in 2015 and appeared to be ready on the precipice of a nice career when he his arm blew out the next year. Nathan has been trying to get back to the major leagues for two years, his last start before last night was August 10th, 2016.  Last night Nathan pitched six no-hit innings and was not allowed to continue since this was his first game in almost two years.

Year    Age   Tm  W  L  W-L%  ERA  GS    IP ERA+  FIP  WHIP   H9 BB9 SO9
2011     21  LAD  1  2  .333 3.63   6  34.2  102 4.35 1.385  7.3 5.2 6.0
2012     22  TOT  4 13  .235 4.30  22 119.1   92 4.13 1.508 10.0 3.5 5.9
2012     22  LAD  1  6  .143 4.15  10  56.1   92 4.11 1.473 10.1 3.2 5.4
2012     22  MIA  3  7  .300 4.43  12  63.0   92 4.16 1.540 10.0 3.9 6.3
2013     23  MIA  4  6  .400 3.39  18 106.1  114 3.59 1.317  8.5 3.4 6.6
2014     24  MIA  6 14  .300 4.37  33 199.2   85 3.37 1.332 10.1 1.9 6.4
2015     25  NYY 14  3  .824 4.20  27 154.1   97 3.42 1.451 10.2 2.9 7.1
2016     26  NYY  9  8  .529 4.76  21 124.2   90 4.97 1.307  8.9 2.9 7.0
2018     28  TBR  1  0 1.000 0.00   1        6.0 2.28 0.167  0.0 1.5 6.0
7 Yr   7 Yr 7 Yr 39 46  .459 4.18 128 745.0   94 3.84 1.372  9.4 2.9 6.6
MIA     MIA  MIA 13 27  .325 4.10  63 369.0   93 3.57 1.363  9.6 2.7 6.4
LAD     LAD  LAD  2  8  .200 3.96  16  91.0   96 4.20 1.440  9.0 4.0 5.6
NYY     NYY  NYY 23 11  .676 4.45  48 279.0   94 4.11 1.387  9.6 2.9 7.0
TBR     TBR  TBR  1  0 1.000 0.00   1        6.0 2.28 0.167  0.0 1.5 6.0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/31/2018.

Wilmer Font was tasked with continuing the no-hitter. Font gave up a hit to the second hitter of the inning but then cruised through the next five outs and at least kept the shutout intact. Font should be well known to anyone who reads this blog though some of you no doubt had no idea he was now pitching for Tampa. The last time most Dodger fans heard of Font was when he was traded by the Dodgers on April 25th to Oakland. Font will be remembered if he is remembered at all for pitching his heart out in an extra-inning game on April 2nd. For four innings he kept the Dodgers in the game with four shutout innings, but in his 5th inning he gave up two runs and took the loss.  From that game on Font gave up eleven earned runs in just four innings before finally throwing one clean inning on April 18th. That was his last game as a Dodger, and was traded to Oakland. In Oakland he was just as bad giving up eight earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. His combined time with the Dodgers and Oakland consisted of seventeen innings and a whopping ten home runs. He was traded by Oakland to Tampa on May 25th. The reason he was traded by both teams is that Font is out of options, so each team tried to get some value instead of simply releasing him. Three teams think he is a major league pitcher, and for the first time since April 2nd, he pitched like one last night. Font said earlier in the week that he had moved back to the spot on the rubber that he had used last year when was the PCL pitcher of Year. A spot that he had been moved from by Oakland and was never comfortable with.  This might be the highlight of his career but at least he can say he was part of a one-hitter even though he was the pitcher that gave up the lone hit. One other interesting note is that the game came against the team who had just traded him a few days earlier.

The final inning went to Vidal Nuno and most Dodger fans are rightfully unaware that he was even a Dodger.  That is because he never actually pitched for the Dodgers. The Dodgers acquired Nuno from the Mariners on Nov 7th, 2016 in exchange for Carlos Ruiz.  Before he could ever pitch for the Dodgers he was traded to Orioles on February 19th, 2017. Nuno who had some major league success before being acquired by the Dodgers only appeared in twelve major league games last year with zero success. He was released by the Orioles and picked up by Tampa this past winter. Much like Font he had just joined the team in the past week. Nuno completed the one-hit shutout by pitching a clean ninth inning.

This combined one-hit shutout was completed by three Ex-Dodgers, and three pitchers who were not on the Tampa Bay active roster just one week ago.

Kinda cool.