<![CDATA[The Red Sox were almost no hit by Yu Darvish, so they came in really needing a strong start from both Jon Lester and the Sox bats. Lester only had one trouble inning, but the bats got all over Rangers pitching and guaranteed the Sox win.
The Sox scored their first run in the 2nd inning Victorino hit an RBI single to score Pedey. Jackie Bradley Jr tried to score on the play and was thrown out at home to end the inning. Sox 1-0. In the 3rd the Sox added another run when Papi hit a solo homerun to start the inning. Sox 2-0. In the 4th the Sox blew the game wide open when they scored 4 more runs in the inning. Victorino hit a 2 run RBI single and then Jonny Gomes hit a 2 run RBI single himself. Sox 6-0. The Sox chased the Rangers starter while Jon Lester was still cruising along. In the 4th inning the Sox did find some trouble, but he was able to limit the damage. Prince Fielder hit an RBI sac fly and then Rios hit an RBI triple. Sox 6-2. In the 5th Lester gave up his third and final run of his outing when he gave up an RBI double to Andrus. Sox 6-3.
The game started to suddenly feel a lot tighter when the Rangers cut the lead in half. Lester did hunker down and pitched through the 7th inning without giving up another run. In the 8th the Sox offense got back to work and basically put the game on ice. Pedroia hit an RBI single to score Middlebrooks and then Victorino hit an RBI sac fly to score Bradley Jr. Sox 8-3. Victorino had a great night at the plate and had 4 RBI on the night. Lester was done after 7 innings and Tazawa was in to pitch the 8th. Taz has struggled his last few times out, so he was looking for a nice rebound outing. Taz gave up a leadoff single, but then erased it when he got Beltre to hit into a double play. Tazawa pitched a scoreless inning and looked like the guy he was early in the season. Burke Badenhop took the mound in the 9th and got to outs, but also gave up 2 singles. Badenhop was out of the game and Andrew Miller was in to get the final out. Miller got Sardinas to strikeout and the game was over.
Red Sox 8 Rangers 3 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (4-4) LP: Perez (4-3)]]>
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