*Photo from the Portland Press Herald*
The Boston Red Sox knew how to beat the Texas Rangers on Friday. The solution? Hit homers. JD Martinez homered twice, Rafael Devers homered, and the Red Sox cruised by the Rangers with a 6-1 win Friday night, with Martinez returning to the lineup after leaving Thursday's game with a migraine.
Martinez started the scoring right away with a 3 run homer in the first inning. Xander Bogaerts then homered right after Martinez, this one being a solo homer to make it 4-0 early on. In the second, Brock Holt got the Rangers on the board with an RBI single to make it 4-1. In the 3rd, solo homers by Martinez and Devers made it 6-1, which lasted the rest of the night.
Martinez said of his hot start to the season that "It’s been a great start. I’ve been doing well. I’ve been hitting, been producing and we’ve been winning. Our team is in first place. It’s been a great month. Just got to keep this going. It’s been one month, there’s still five more to go."
Nathan Eovaldi put up another solid outing for the Red Sox, allowing one run on 4 hits and two walks, striking out 5 hitters in 6 innings pitched to get the win. After Eovaldi departed, Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Austin Brice each threw scoreless innings of relief, with Hernandez striking out all 3 hitters he faced.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the successful first month that "You do that consistently over the course of a season, you win 17 games a month, you put yourself in the conversation. It was a great month. A month that we struggled in a few things, we played well for a good period of time, but knowing this is just a start and we still have to keep working and getting better."
Kohei Arihara was hit with the loss for the Rangers, getting tagged for 6 runs on 4 hits and two walks over just 2 2/3 innings. Hyeon-jong Yang came in after Arihara departed and threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings, saving the bullpen from being taxed. Brett De Geus then threw two scoreless innings.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said of Arihara's struggles that "We'll figure it out and hopefully get him back on track. I don't have an exact answer for it, but we saw in Spring Training him get up to 94 mph at times. Not consistently, but it was consistently at 90-91. Today was pretty much consistently 86-87 mph. A couple of 88s, but he barely touched 90 at times. It just makes it tough because everything else suffers in his repertoire."
The Red Sox and Rangers face off again tonight, with Eduardo Rodriguez starting for the Red Sox, and Jordan Lyles going for the Rangers.
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