After ending a busy day of roster transactions with a series-opening victory, the Boston Red Sox will look to continue their winning ways against the visiting Texas Rangers on Tuesday.
Rob Refsnyder hit a walk-off single to lift the Red Sox to a 5-4, 10-inning win over Texas on Monday. A pinch-hit walk by Mickey Gasper in his major league debut set up the opportunity for the deciding RBI.
Gasper, a 28-year-old New Hampshire native, was promoted from Triple-A Worcester alongside pitchers Bailey Horn and Chase Shugart earlier in the day.
“Hats off to the team giving me that opportunity … to be a part of (a win). I’m speechless,” the catcher/infielder said. “A lot of hard work and a lot of belief (got me here).”
A roster spot opened for Gasper when outfielder Jarren Duran was issued an unpaid, two-game suspension by the club and Major League Baseball after the All-Star directed a homophobic slur toward a fan on Sunday.
However, Gasper earned his promotion. And his contribution was key to Boston curbing a four-game losing streak.
He was hitting a whopping .401 with a 1.017 OPS in 40 games since being promoted from Double-A Portland to Worcester on June 4.
“It gets to a point that he keeps doing this thing over and over and over again” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “A month, a month and a half, two months. And you’re like, ‘The at-bats are good.’ So we got to this point obviously and we felt like he made sense for the roster.”
Boston will hope the momentum continues on Tuesday behind Kutter Crawford (7-9, 4.11 ERA). The right-hander has allowed at least five runs in four consecutive starts, but his lone win during that span came against the Rangers on Aug. 2 in Arlington, Texas. Four of the six hits he allowed in a 5 1/3-inning, five-run start were home runs, though the Red Sox went on to post an 11-6 victory.
Crawford was then charged with six runs in 3 2/3 innings in his most recent start, on Wednesday at Kansas City.
In four career games (three starts) vs. the Rangers, Crawford is 1-0 with a 5.19 ERA.
Texas will counter with right-hander Jose Urena (3-7, 3.74), whom Crawford got the better of in the teams’ series opener earlier this month. The Red Sox tagged Urena for seven runs on eight hits in four-plus innings during that outing, giving him an 0-2 record and a 5.56 ERA in four career starts vs. Boston.
Urena also took the loss in his latest start, when he worked four innings of two-run ball against the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
The Rangers likely will need a big start from Urena after the late innings on Monday went to rookies Gerson Garabito and Walter Pennington, the last two of seven Texas pitchers to take the mound.
“Well, we had arms out there,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said.
Following the loss, the Rangers are a season-worst nine games below .500, and they are 1-5 in their past six contests.
Even Corey Seager’s sixth home run in a 10-game span — tying the game at 3-3 in the seventh inning — was not enough. The team’s lineup was also adjusted, with Marcus Semien leading off and Adolis Garcia hitting cleanup.
“(We’re) just kind of getting the old band back together, to their roles where they normally are,” Bochy said before the series began. “See if we can get things going there.”
Semien went 1-for-5 with an RBI on Monday, and Garcia also finished 1-for-5.
–Field Level Media
