ARLINGTON – (Wire Service Report) – The Texas Rangers will have plenty to play for when they wrap up a three-game series against the visiting Boston Red Sox on Thursday night in Texas.
A victory would give the Rangers (76-76) a three-game sweep and keep them in at least a tie for first place in the American League West. Their 7-3 victory over Boston on Wednesday, plus Kansas City’s 5-2 win against Houston, left the Rangers and Astros tied at the top of the division standings. Houston will face Kansas City again Thursday.
The Astros own the tiebreaker.
Nathan Eovaldi held Boston scoreless for the final four innings Wednesday to earn the win. The victory stretched Texas’ winning streak to four games.
“We just have to keep playing baseball,” Eovaldi said. “Keep doing the things we’ve been doing. We’ve been playing well lately and I think it’s a combination of everybody stepping up and doing their part.
“Obviously guys are grinding right now, but for us to be able to come out and play well in these first two games against the Red Sox — we have to make sure we’re able to bounce back tomorrow — but I think it just shows the grit that we have in the clubhouse in all the guys.”
Eovaldi surrendered one hit and threw 46 pitches in relief.
“Once it got tied up, just felt like he (Eovaldi) was the guy to take us to the end,” Texas manager Skip Schumaker said. “We didn’t have (Jacob) Latz available. We didn’t have (Robert) Garcia available today. … What he provided was enormous because we were a little bit limited in the back end.”
The game was tied, 3-3, until Texas scored three runs against reliever Erik Miller in the seventh, an inning that featured a walk, a hit batter and two hits.
“They put some good swings on him,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “I don’t know what else to say other than that. He hit the leadoff guy so you put traffic out there, and they got some pitches up in the zone and they hit him hard. He’ll be fine. He’s really good, but they were able to get some good swings on him today.”
Boston (82-70) received a two-run home run from Willson Contreras but was held to three hits. In their 4-2 loss on Thursday, the Red Sox had six hits but struck out 15 times.
“We’re going through it a little bit,” Tracy said. “We didn’t create a ton of opportunities. Obviously Willson with a big swing to give us the lead and only a couple other chances, one of which was a ball that was stung by Izzy (Isiah Kiner-Falefa) on a contact play for a double play. And then we gave ourselves one other chance. … Just not creating a ton of opportunities for ourselves.
“We got some guys going through it. You could see one or two big swings and it could turn completely in the other direction. We just gotta keep plugging away at it.”
The Red Sox have a hold on the second AL wild card, up five games over the third spot.
Boston will send right-hander Sonny Gray (17-5, 2.76 ERA) to the mound Thursday as they attempt to avoid the three-game sweep. Gray is 12-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 20 career appearances (19 starts) against Texas.
Tyler Alexander (5-2, 3.38) is expected to be the opener for the Rangers before giving way to fellow left-hander Cody Bradford (0-5, 4.72) as the bulk reliever. He has a 7.36 ERA in one career start against Boston, that coming in a 7-4 win on Aug. 3, when he gave up three runs on four hits — including two home runs — in 3 2/3 innings. He did not figure into the decision.
Alexander has seven career appearances (one start) against the Red Sox and is 1-0 with a 5.63 ERA. He pitched one scoreless innings of relief in the win on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media