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The Texas Rangers scored four runs and the Boston Red Sox scored one run.
Jose Trevino’s first home run of the season was a pretty big one for the Rangers tonight. After Texas scored a run off of Martin Perez in the bottom of the fourth, Rangers’ starter Kyle Gibson saw his 25-inning home scoreless streak come to an end as the Red Sox tied things in the top of the sixth.
One half inning later, with Perez lifted with two outs and a runner on, Trevino lofted the second pitch served up by reliever Hirokazu Sawamura over the left field fence for his first dong of the year to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
One inning after that, Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit his first homer — a solo shot — since April 10 to give Texas some insurance against the first place Red Sox.
It was interesting to see Perez work tonight as the former longtime heralded Rangers prospect and longtime big league mystery came in and threw 5 2⁄3 innings of one-run ball (the inherited run scored via an error) with five hits allowed, zero walks, and seven strikeouts collected.
Were Boston to have it to do over again, I reckon they’d leave Perez in to face Trevino as Perez was at just 82 pitches for the night. But that’s baseball in 2021.
Meanwhile, Gibson gave the Rangers six innings of one-run ball with just three hits allowed but three walks charged to his ledger and four strikeouts. Gibson wasn’t as in command as he had been since his disastrous Opening Day start but it never felt like he was in any danger of the wheels falling off and he now moves to 3-0 on the season.
Player of the Game:
Up Next: The Rangers and Red Sox are back at it tomorrow night with RHP Kohei Arihara looking to bounce back after a rough outing last time out for Texas against RHP Nathan Eovaldi for Boston. Friday night’s first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.