For the third consecutive series and sixth time this season, the Red Sox rebounded from an opening loss to win the slate.
They defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 5-0 on Thursday afternoon to pick up their 20th victory and get back in the win column (20-19).
Brayan Bello, Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock and Liam Hendriks held the Texas team to just five hits in the combined shutout.
Manager Alex Cora described Bello’s 4.2 innings as “erratic.” The righty allowed 12 of his 21 batters to reach base, issued five walks to match his career-high, and only struck out one batter, but pulled off one Houdini-esque escape after another.
“A few pitches that weren’t executed the way I wanted, but I was able to get out of those,” Bello said via translator, crediting the defense for backing him up.
“A lot of traffic, gave us enough, and the bullpen did an awesome job,” Cora added.
The Red Sox had plenty of traffic, too, though they only managed six hits.
Rangers starter Jack Leiter pitched 5.1 innings but he was unable to exit unblemished: he gave up four earned runs on three hits, walked four, struck out three, and had a balk and wild pitch among his 90 pitches (57 strikes). He began his outing by hitting leadoff man Jarren Duran and walking Rafael Devers, but the Red Sox let Leiter off the hook in the first.
Boston took a 2-0 lead in the following frame, scoring on a bases-loaded wild pitch and RBI groundout, then added a run apiece in the fifth, sixth, and seventh.
Devers and Ceddanne Rafaela led the way with two hits apiece, and Carlos Narváez had an RBI single.
Devers also picked up his first stolen base since the Gerrit Cole intentional walk incident at Yankee Stadium last September, and hit his seventh home run of the season. He’s reached base in 11 of his last 12 games, hitting .383 with a 1.205 OPS over that span.
“He’s in a comfort zone,” said Cora. “He’s not chasing pitches. … If we can continue to do this, it’s going to be very dangerous.”
Devers’ hardest-hit came postgame, though. He called out chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and the front office for trying to get him to switch to first base after forcing him out of third base and into the designated-hitter role during spring training.
Rafael Devers calls out Craig Breslow, Red Sox front office: ‘I don’t feel that they stayed true to their word’
Making his first multi-inning appearance since May 25, 2022, Hendriks capped off the shutout with a 1-2-3 eighth and worked around a two-out hit batsman to complete the ninth. The ninth also saw Rafaela adding to his highlight reel when he slammed into the padded wall of the Boston bullpen for a gutsy catch.
“It was good to see him out there and keep getting better, I think that’s the most important thing,” Cora said of veteran reliever Hendriks, who missed most of the last two seasons after undergoing cancer treatments and Tommy John surgery and hadn’t pitched two full innings since July ‘21. “The goal was for him to be able to perform, now it’s to be able to do that over and over and over again. We know he can do it. The stuff is getting better, he’s been efficient, the use of the pitches has been great, and little by little, he’s gaining momentum.”
The Red Sox also built some momentum with their second consecutive win. The timing couldn’t be better, either, as they head out on this crucial road trip to face the formidable Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers.
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