Bill Koch

Monday

Jul 9, 2018 at 11:00 PM


BOSTON --- The Red Sox will play the majority of their remaining games this season at Fenway Park, and there’s no reason to think most of them won’t look like Monday night.


Boston welcomed another outclassed opponent to town and simply found a way to reach the finish line first, as the Rangers struggled to locate their offense for the second stop of their three-city road trip.


Steve Pearce made his home debut with the Red Sox a memorable one, J.D. Martinez was [...]

BOSTON --- The Red Sox will play the majority of their remaining games this season at Fenway Park, and there’s no reason to think most of them won’t look like Monday night.

Boston welcomed another outclassed opponent to town and simply found a way to reach the finish line first, as the Rangers struggled to locate their offense for the second stop of their three-city road trip.

Steve Pearce made his home debut with the Red Sox a memorable one, J.D. Martinez was up to his usual tricks and the pitching staff strung together more zeroes as Boston coasted to a 5-0 shutout in front of a sellout crowd of 36,754.

All of the Red Sox offense came on two swings that propelled a pair of balls into the Monster seats. Pearce slashed a two-run homer down the line in left in the bottom of the first inning and Martinez sent a three-run shot out to left center in the bottom of the eighth, as Boston made it a dozen straight wins since June 17 when scoring five or more runs. Eduardo Rodriguez and four relievers took over from there, as Texas advanced just one man past second base and collected a mere four hits.

Martinez lined a single to center and Pearce dug in to little fanfare against Mike Minor, with most of the crowd still finding a seat on a warm summer night. Pearce caught up to a 3-2 fastball and pulled it down the line, with the ball settling just above the Monster to plate the only runs of the game. Pearce added a one-out single in the sixth, improving to 11-for-23 with the Red Sox since his June 28 acquisition from Toronto.

Boston fans have become more accustomed to fireworks from Martinez, and he delivered yet again to open this one up in the eighth. Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi knocked back-to-back singles before Martinez delivered the knockout blow with a towering drive against Rangers right-hander Jesse Chavez. That sealed a seventh straight victory for the Red Sox and the 12th in their last 14 games.

Rodriguez reached what seems to be his preferred workload before departing with two men on in the sixth. It was the fifth time in 18 starts this season the left-hander has been lifted after 5 2/3 innings, and he’s earned the victory on each occasion. Heath Hembree struck out a swinging Isiah Kiner-Falefa to strand a pair, retiring the only batter he faced.

This was the best and most vexing version of Rodriguez on display at times, both dominating with his three primary pitches and working deep counts so frequently he couldn’t shorten the bridge to the game’s final three outs. Rodriguez recorded all but one of his five strikeouts on his cut-fastball, catching each man looking. He also issued two-out walks to Nomar Mazara in the first and Kiner-Falefa in the second, adding a combined 11 pitches to his final count of 108 instead of finishing simple 1-2-3 innings.

Brandon Workman navigated around a leadoff triple by Robinson Chirinos in the seventh and Joe Kelly shook off a leadoff single by Mazara in the eighth to keep the Rangers at bay. Workman’s strikeout of Joey Gallo and pair of infield outs did the job while Kelly fanned the next two men he faced and induced a fielder’s choice from Jurickson Profar.

Ryan Brasier closed it out for Boston, tagging in for Craig Kimbrel after Martinez widened the margin. It was the first big league appearance for the right-hander since September 2013, also coming against Texas as a member of the Angels.

 

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25