The Boston Red Sox suddenly found their offense and hope to continue their recent prowess when they face the Texas Rangers on Saturday night in the second game of a three-game series in Arlington, Texas.
Boston will send left-hander Rich Hill (0-1, 2.86 ERA) to the mound on Saturday, and right-hander Glenn Otto (1-0, 3.14) will start for the Rangers.
The Red Sox captured the series opener 7-1 on Friday behind Nick Pivetta’s strong seven innings on the mound and a station-to-station attack that produced 10 hits — just three for extra bases.
Pivetta has allowed just one run in his past 13 innings over two starts, and his ERA has dropped from 7.84 to 5.08 during the stretch.
On Friday, Xander Bogaerts had two hits and two RBIs to lead Boston while J.D. Martinez also had two hits. Enrique Hernandez was on base four times with two walks, a single and a hit by pitch, and every player in the Red Sox’s starting lineup but Jackie Bradley Jr. recorded a hit.
Martinez extended his hitting streak to 14 games as the Red Sox won for the second time in their past three contests after losing five in a row.
Hill is coming off the COVID injury list.
“I saw him this morning. He feels great,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said before Friday’s game.
Boston outfielder Alex Verdugo was removed from Friday’s game in the seventh inning because of a right-foot contusion. X-rays on his foot were negative, and he is listed as day-to-day.
The Rangers managed just four hits in the loss, three by outfielder Kole Calhoun. He also produced Texas’ only run by scoring on a wild pitch in the seventh after he had tripled.
“We had a lot of ‘just misses’ today,” Texas manager Chris Woodward said after Friday’s loss. “We actually (hit) some balls really hard that we were just unlucky on. The fact that we were just missing is encouraging. That’s the bottom line.
“We went out there today with the plan to hit the fastball, and there were some good swings. I have a lot of circles on my card for the balls we hit hard. I think we actually accomplished the game plan but just didn’t get the line drives.”
The Rangers got nothing offensively on Friday from star offseason acquisitions Corey Seager (0 for 3 with a strikeout) and Marcus Semien, who went 0 for 4 to drop his average to .160.
Semien, who sat out the Rangers’ win on Thursday against Kansas City, has not homered this year and has just 19 hits and eight RBIs in 119 at-bats.
Texas is 5-16 this season when scoring five runs or less.
–Field Level Media
