The Rangers avoided being swept by the Red Sox as they took game three of a three-game set and beat the Boston Red Sox 7-1, with Adolis Garcia and Kole Calhoun hitting two home runs each and Martin Perez pitching six scoreless innings.
“(Perez) had a great first inning getting out of trouble there and made some quality pitches, punching out two really good hitters,” Rangers skipper Chris Woodard said of the Texas Ace. “For the team, we know we have our best pitcher on the mound. He’s pitching one of the best in baseball right now.”
Texas was down 1-0 and had no hits until Calhoun led off the bottom of the fifth with an opposite-field home run into the visitors’ bullpen in left-center.
In the sixth inning, Garcia broke a 1-1 tie with two outs and two men on base. Before dropping his bat and breaking into a trot, he took 10 steps down the first baseline while watching the ball disappear into the right-center field bullpen.
Two pitches later, Calhoun hit another home run the other way.
In the eighth inning, Garcia tied his career-high of five RBIs with a two-run homer.
The home runs by Texas were the first of the three-game series. The Red Sox won the first two games against the Rangers, but they have yet to win three in a row this season.
Perez struck out seven batters and gave up five hits. He has an ERA of 0.84 in his last five starts. The win evens his record on the season at 2-2.
Perez kept the Red Sox scoreless until the top of the fifth inning when Rafael Devers hit a one-hop double off the center-field fence after Kiké Hernández singled to right-center field.
The Rangers used three pitchers out of the bullpen in the final three innings of the contest. John King, Matt Bush, and Joe Barlow combined to throw three innings, allowing just two hits, walking one, and striking out three.
The win moves Texas to a record of 14-19, eight games behind the Astros in the standings and one game ahead of cellar-dwelling Oakland in the American League West.
The Rangers now host Anaheim (just half a game back of the front Houston in the AL West) for a three-game stint, with game one starting at 7:05 p.m. on Monday, May 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington. Starting pitchers for the match are predicted to be Noah Syndergaard for the Angels and Jon Gray on the bump for Texas.
