The Texas Rangers got exactly what they needed Tuesday night: a win, a reset to .500, and a little help from Kansas City.
Texas beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 to move to 76-76, matching the Houston Astros after Houston lost at home to the last place KC Royals. Because the Rangers dropped the season series tiebreaker, they’ll need to finish with a better record than Houston to take the AL West, but with 10 games left between the two Texas clubs, the race is back on.
The Rangers had to grind for it. Boston jumped on MacKenzie Gore in the first inning when he walked the leadoff hitter and then allowed a two-out, two-run home run.
Gore later drew a visit from trainers in the second after appearing to grab his side following a pitch, but he stayed in and battled through four innings. Even with shaky control and diminished velocity, he gave Texas enough to keep hanging around.
Texas answered with a run in the bottom of the first, though it came in a frustrating way. The Rangers stacked two doubles around a single and still managed only one run, leaving the tying and go-ahead runs stranded.
The game stayed tight until the fourth, when Justin Foscue came through with a two-out RBI single to tie it at 2-2. Boston nudged back in front in the fifth after Gore walked the leadoff man and gave up an infield single that moved the runner to third. Jakob Junis came on, struck out former Ranger Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and then committed a balk that let the Red Sox score.
Texas answered again in the bottom of the fifth. Josh Jung, who finished with three hits, doubled to open the inning and scored on a two-out blooper from Wyatt Langford that dropped into center field.
From there, Nathan Eovaldi took over and gave the Rangers exactly the kind of bridge they needed. The veteran worked the rest of the way, turning in four innings of one-hit relief and keeping Boston off the board while Texas kept building.
The decisive inning came in the seventh, when the Rangers broke a 3-3 tie with a burst of two-out damage. Brandon Nimmo doubled in the go-ahead run, and Ezequiel Duran followed with a two-out, two-run single to push the lead to 6-3. It was Texas’ third two-out run-scoring hit of the night.
They weren’t done. In the eighth, Corey Seager singled in Alejandro Osuna to make it 7-3 and give Eovaldi a comfortable cushion for a clean ninth.
Player of the Game: Nathan Eovaldi should get a statue at The Shed some day. Tonight he pitched four innings of one hit relief and kept the Red Sox off the board while the Rangers rallied back to win.
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