40-43 - Rangers try to give Red Sox a taste of despair, only delay inevitable

Tony Barnette, Rougned Odor, and Jonathan Lucroy were the goats of tonight’s 5-4 loss to the Red Sox. If you had a tier system for disappointments from the 2017 season for the Rangers, Barnette would top the bottom tier, Odor would top the middle tier, and Lucroy would top a tier designed for him alone as the most disappointing thing that has ever happened.

All three reached goat status for tonight’s game in the sixth inning in a tense 2-2 ballgame. Martin Perez had his early Martin Perez inning where he loaded the bases and then couldn’t get Dustin Pedroia out as one does.

Otherwise, Perez was decent. With two outs in the sixth, a wild pitch that Lucroy couldn’t handle moved a Boston runner to second to kill the potential for a force play and give the Red Sox the go-ahead run in scoring position.

Sure enough, a ground ball to Rougie was booted as he took a weird angle for a throw to first in the middle of the diamond in front of second base. The error extended the Red Sox’s inning and, after walking Mookie Betts to load the bases for the second time on the night, Perez’s night was done.

In came Barnette in his first appearance since returning from the DL. He promptly threw a “wild pitch” that squirted by Lucroy on a ball he probably should have been able to block and the Red Sox had the lead after turning a two-out, runner on first base situation into a run without the benefit of a hit.

Five pitches later and Pedroia once again came through with a two-run, two-out RBI base hit. The damage was done for the three goats.

Texas rallied with a run in the seventh on a Carlos Gomez home run and a run in the eighth on a Nomar Mazara RBI single but Rougie struck out with Delino DeShields in scoring position.

Mike Napoli hit a home run off Craig Kimbrel to tie the game and it looked like the Rangers might get Rougie off the hook and complete a comeback but alas they couldn’t get another run and a battle of the bullpens in extras is obviously not a pleasant ask to make of Texas.

After like twelve annoyingly great defensive plays made by Pedroia just to rub it in that their second baseman can play defense, the Red Sox eventually scored two runs on a bloop single in the 11th to win.play def

Player of the Game: Jason Grilli is the new veteran bullpen grandpa sheriff in town and he pitched a scoreless inning of relief in his re-Rangers debut with two strikeouts.

Up Next: In the marquee matchup of the first half, Yu Darvish will take on David Price in the second game of this series. First pitch from The Ballpark is scheduled for 7:08 pm CT.