ARLINGTON – Nathan Eovaldi helped Kirby Yates this spring. Yates paid him back on Friday in the Rangers’ 2-1 win over Cincinnati.

Eovaldi, a certified throwing teacher, had discussed splitter holds with Yates during the spring. As Yates mentioned last weekend, it wasn’t a long conversation.

“But it was enough.”

The essence of the conversation: loosen your grip on the divider. It allowed more movement. The moment Eovaldi mentioned that, Yates said something clicked. The divider, Yates said, has more strength this year, a sharper and later downward movement.

He used it four times in his 14-pitch ninth inning on Friday, pitching each one well below the zone en route to his fourth save. He only got one swing and missed, but it was strike three to Jeimer Candelario for the second out. It works in tandem with the thought of the fastball, coming out of your hand in much the same way. He keeps hitters off balance.

“It’s been fantastic,” Eovaldi said. “He has fallen off the table. He has the good deed he likes. Hitters will tell you how good the pitches are and, I mean, the swings they’re taking, you base it on them and he’s swinging and missing.”

Well, we know the Cowboys drafted some guys and the Mavs got ahead in the playoff series, but we have some other VERY IMPORTANT thoughts on the Rangers:

Biggest surprise: Josh Smith doubled with one out in the eighth to extend his streak of consecutive games on base to 14. Smith is a different hitter this year. He has moved away from the plate a good four inches, at least, but, more importantly, he has reduced strikeouts and kept his bat in the zone longer. He’s eliminating lazy fly balls, which were a real problem the last two years.

“He got into trouble when he got happy with power,” Bochy said.

He’s not a power hitter. He is a contact hitter. And if he has achieved that self-realization, the possibilities are much brighter for him.

The worst result of a good at-bat: Nathaniel Lowe worked Graham Ashcraft for 11 pitches in the sixth inning on Friday, then hit a grounder up the middle, where Elly De La Cruz was standing, for an easy double play. That just doesn’t seem right.

rarest call: Speaking of De La Cruz, a home robbery was attributed to him to explain the Reds’ only run. Call it delayed theft. For about three tickets. In the first inning, De La Cruz scored from third. In real time, he seemed to score after Jonah Heim’s throw to second after Spencer Steer’s attempted steal moved to second. After closer examination, scorer Will Rudd changed the call to a steal for De La Cruz, saying he went home. before The launch went crazy. Mmmmm. I’m not sure about that.

The consequences of that were that the Reds’ run in the first inning was an earned run instead of an unearned run. So Nathan Eovaldi has a 3.00 ERA for the season, instead of 2.75.

De La Cruz will be a problem throughout the series. The MLB stolen base leader, now with 17, makes things happen on the bases and might have contributed to the two walks Eovaldi gave to Steer, who batted right behind him. Eovaldi tried to slide to catch De La Cruz, but said after the game he felt he had pushed too hard. That’s one of the ways the running game is disruptive.

Best sign: Leody Taveras doubled to start the third inning to break an 0-for-14, then singled in his next at-bat. Look, things aren’t going great for Corey Seager either, who broke an 0-for-18 run with an infield single. But Seager has a slightly older track record of success and missed all of spring training. Taveras had an OPS below .700 in each of his first three seasons before appearing to take off last year. If there’s one Rangers hitter about whom a slow start will raise questions, it’s Taveras. Friday was a good night for him.

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