Let's admit it, we were all a little scared that the Texas Rangers were coming into town. The Rangers have the best record in the AL East and the last time we faced them they swept us. We were all shaking in our boots a little bit. The Red Sox were not it seems as they got after rookie Justin Grimm quick and often and Ryan Dempster pitched himself to a nice win. The Red Sox scored in every single inning except the 8th inning when the Rangers sent position player David Murphy to the mound. It was a great night of baseball, if you are a Sox fan.
Dempster had himself a nice outing while getting a bunch of run support. He would keep the Rangers off the scoreboard until the 4th inning when he gave up a 2 run HR to Baker. He also gave up a solo HR in the 6th to Nellie Cruz to give the Rangers a whoppin' 3 runs. Dempster had himself a nice outing and pitched 7 strong innings. His pitching line for the night was 107 pitches, 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 BB and 6 Ks. Clayton Mortensen would have trouble in the 8th and allow 2 more runs to score. Morty gave up a 2 run HR to Mitch Moreland and then gave up 2 more singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. Andrew Miller came in to the inning and threw one pitch and got the out we needed to end the inning. Miller would also pitch the 9th inning and notch the win for the Sox.
Now let's talk about this offense, shall we? They got on top of Rangers pitching early and often. The Sox scored 2 runs in the 1st inning with an RBI double by Papi and then an RBI groundout by Salty. In the 2nd the Red Sox scored 6 more runs and basically put this game away. Jackie Bradley Jr hit his first major league HR, Papi hit a 2 RBI triple (you heard me, I said triple), Nap hit a sac fly RBI and then Salty hit a double to knock Grimm out of the game. Drew hit an RBI double and the Sox were leading 8-0. In the 3rd, Mike Carp hit an RBI single to bring the Sox to 9-0. The Sox continued their own version of a HR derby. Drew homered in the 4th, Carp homered in the 5th and Salty homered in the 6th. The Sox then got 3 more runs with some small ball. Jackie Bradley Jr got a sac grounder, Nava got what should have been a sac fly, but Cruz mishandled it and he ended up at third base and Carp hit a sac fly to have the Sox leading 15-3. In the 7th the Sox would get their 2 final runs when Iglesias hit an RBI single to score Salty and Drew. In the 8th inning the Rangers sent outfielder David Murphy to the mound to pitch. Ironically this would be the only inning in which the Sox did not crack the scoreboard.
Phew. That was an amazing game and I was lucky enough to be at it. The Sox blasted away early and often on Rangers pitching. Let's hope the Sox can repeat this performance for the next two nights against the Rangers.
Red Sox 17 Rangers 5 BOXSCORE
WP: Dempster (3-6) LP: Grimm (5-4)
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