Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez homered, and Enrique Hernandez drove in three runs as the visiting Boston Red Sox rolled to an 11-3 win over the struggling Texas Rangers on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
Boston has scored 18 runs in winning its past two contests after averaging 3.5 runs in its previous 31 games.
Martinez extended his hitting streak to 15 games as the Red Sox won for the third time in their past four contests.
Boston starter Rich Hill, who was activated from the COVID injury list earlier in the day, allowed three runs, two earned, in six-plus innings of work. Hill (1-1) struck out four, scattered seven hits and didn’t walk a batter before being lifted after facing three batters in the seventh.
The Red Sox jumped to the lead in the first on a solo home run by Martinez off Texas starter Glenn Otto.
The Rangers tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the frame as Eli White reached on an error by Trevor Story. White stole second and third, and then scored on a single to right by Corey Seager.
Boston ripped off a four-run second inning. Bobby Dalbec brought home Franchy Cordero on a single, Hernandez plated Christian Vazquez with a sacrifice fly and Devers blasted a two-run, two-out homer off the left-field foul pole.
Hernandez’s groundout in the fourth plated Dalbec and expanded the Boston lead to 6-1.
The Red Sox then chased Otto with a three-run fifth, as Cordero, Vazquez and Hernandez had run-scoring hits.
Texas finally touched up Hill in the seventh, when Kole Calhoun’s double brought home Nick Solak and Andy Ibanez. Hirokazu Sawamura relieved for Boston and quelled the minor Rangers’ uprising.
Xander Bogaerts added sacrifice fly in the eighth and Jackie Bradley Jr. finished the Red Sox’s scoring with an RBI single in the ninth.
Otto (1-1) struggled for the first time his fourth start of the season and took the loss, allowing eight runs on eight hits and four walks in four-plus innings. Otto struck out two while his ERA rose from 3.14 to 6.38 with the shaky outing.
Texas managed seven hits by seven different players.
–Field Level Media
