During Sunday’s game, the full-count pitch to the second batter was clearly outside, but the crowd at Globe Life Field let out a collective groan when it was called a ball. The reaction may have been due to the rarity of Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi issuing a walk, as it had been a long time since he had done so.

In fact, even a dedicated superfan who watched every pitch Eovaldi threw in July never saw him give up a walk. Eovaldi’s streak of 167 batters faced and 43 1/3 innings without issuing a walk—both franchise records—came to an end when he walked Masataka Yoshida after recording the first out of the Rangers’ 7-2 defeat to the Red Sox.

This rare walk seemed to signal an off-day for Eovaldi, who struggled with inconsistency. He allowed five earned runs on seven hits over five-plus innings, including two home runs, and recorded seven strikeouts.

In two-strike counts, Eovaldi missed with fastballs above the strike zone five times, enough that both he and manager Bruce Bochy specifically mentioned the two-strike misfires after the game.

“I felt like my splitter was really, really good today, I relied on it a lot, but I can’t go out there and throw it every time, right?” Eovaldi said. “I would use it, get ahead 0-2 or 1-2, and then try to execute a good fastball up and in, up and away, and it was just too high. I’d reset the count and then I have to come back and really make a good pitch, and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Eovaldi kept the Rangers in the game, for the most part, but the last two runs he was charged with scored when rookie Walter Pennington, who relieved Eovaldi in the sixth, surrendered a three-run home run to Wilyer Abreu.

Eovaldi “had good stuff,” Bochy said. “His velocity was good, everything was good … they’re good hitters over there and they found a way to get some runs and we gave up two of his runs.”