After managing to score just four total runs over their last three games, the Red Sox broke out of their offensive slump in a big way on Friday with a 6-1 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
All six runs Boston scored came by way of the home run ball, with J.D. Martinez hitting a three-run homer and Xander Bogaerts crushing a solo homer in the first inning, and Martinez and Rafael Devers clubbing a pair of solo shots in the fourth.
Nathan Eovaldi improved to 4-2 for the Sox, while Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Austin Brice closed things out out of the bullpen.
Martinez goes yard twice, Bogaerts and Devers once
Matched up against Japanese right-hander Kohei Arihara, for the Rangers, a leadoff walk drawn by Christian Arroyo in the top half of the first proved to be the catalyst for an explosive inning.
That being the case because Alex Verdugo followed by drawing yet another free pass to put runners at first and second for Martinez.
On the very first pitch he saw from Arihara, the Sox slugger crushed a three-run homer to left-center field to give his side an early 3-0 lead.
Xander Bogaerts followed by mashing his fourth home run of the season — a 405-foot bullet to left field — off Arihara to make it a 4-0 game.
Fast forward to the third, and Martinez struck once more, this time depositing an Arihara splitter a whopping 440 feet to dead center for his second big fly of the night and his major-league leading ninth big fly of the season. 5-0.
Devers tacked on one more run by collecting his seventh homer of the season later inning, and that would prove to be all the scoring the Red Sox would need to secure the victory.
Eovaldi eclipses 1,000 innings plateau
Coming into his start on Friday with 994 2/3 career innings pitched under his belt, Eovaldi would need to go at least 5 1/3 innings deep against the Rangers to reach the 1,000-inning mark.
In his home state of Texas, the veteran right-hander did just that — and more– by providing the Sox with six strong innings of work in which he yielded just one earned run on four hits, two walks, and one hit batsman to go along with five strikeouts on the night.
The lone Rangers run Eovaldi surrendered came in the bottom half of the second, when he plunked Adolis Garcia with a pitch and allowed him to score on a two-out RBI single off the bat of old friend Brock Holt moments later.
Outside of that, the 33-year-old was able to keep things in check, retired nine of the last 12 hitters he faced, and finished with a final pitch count of 91 (59 strikes). His next start should come against the Tigers back at Fenway Park on Thursday.
Arroyo makes impressive throw while on the move
In Eovaldi’s final inning of work, Garcia tapped a sharply-hit groundball towards the middle side of the infield.
Christian Arroyo, who started at second base for Boston on Friday, managed to corral the ball with a slide and, while on his knees, made a quality throw to first base in order to get the runner out.
Next up: Rodriguez vs. Lyles
After wrapping up the month of April at 17-10, the Red Sox will hand the ball to Eduardo Rodriguez to kick off the month of May on Saturday night. The left-hander will be matched up against Rangers right-hander Jordan Lyles.
First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN.
(Picture of J.D. Martinez: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
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