BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Before he went way off script to question the Red Sox organization and team General Manager Craig Breslow, current designated hitter Rafael Devers had two hits, including a home run, and the Boston Red Sox used four pitchers to earn a 5-0 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers on Thursday.
Devers made it a five-run lead when he hit a solo home run against reliever Jacob Latz in the seventh inning. It was his sixth home run of the season. Devers also had an RBI single in the fifth.
“In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove, that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH, so right now, I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position,” said Devers to reporters through an interpreter (Spanish-English).
“I don’t feel that they stayed true to their word,” he said. “They told me that I was going to be playing this position, DH, and now they’re going back on that. So I just don’t think they stayed true to their word,” said Devers. “They’ve told me I’m a little hard-headed. [But] they already asked me to change once, and this time, I don’t think I can be as flexible.”
Back to the ballgame, Ceddanne Rafaela also had two hits for the Red Sox, who had six total hits, while winning consecutive games for the first time this month.
Boston starter Brayan Bello pitched 4 2/3 scoreless innings but struggled with his control. He held Texas to four hits and struck out one with five walks.
Justin Slaten (1-3) took over for Bello in the fifth inning and did not allow a run over 1 1/3 hitless innings. Garrett Whitlock pitched the seventh and Liam Hendriks was on the mound for the final two innings, recording two strikeouts.
No. 9 hitter Tucker Barnhart had three hits for Texas, which was limited to five singles in the loss. Wyatt Langford and Josh Smith also had hits for the Rangers.
Texas received 5 1/3 innings from starting pitcher Jack Leiter (2-2), who allowed three runs on three hits with four walks and three strikeouts.
The Red Sox scored two runs in the second, one in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Trevor Story handed Boston a 1-0 lead when he scored on a Leiter wild pitch in the first inning. The Red Sox doubled their lead later in the inning on a Jarren Duran groundout that allowed Carlos Narvaez to score.
It remained 2-0 until the fifth, when Rafaela scored on a Devers single to center. A Narvaez single drove in Story to make it 4-0 in the sixth before Devers’ home run in the seventh.
–Field Level Media
