September 3, 2022 - Game 132
W - Brayan Bollo (1-4)
L - Dennis Santana (3-7)
S- John Schreiber (6)
HR: TEX: Semien (21), Lowe (23)
Time of Game: 3:12
Game Recap
On Saturday, the Rangers and Red Sox played an afternoon matinee at Fenway Park. When The Rangers submitted the lineup, the team announced that Dennis Santana would be the opener for what Texas considers a bullpen game. Of course, with the limited arms on Friday, the Rangers had many options, including guys like Taylor Hearn and Kohei Arihara. Meanwhile, the Texas offense had Brayan Bello to contend with. Bello is one of the Red Sox's top pitching prospects with a lively fastball. The rookie picked up his first MLB win (third pitcher this season to pick up his first MLB win vs. the Rangers). It was a dominant start by Bello on the day.
Boston drew first blood on Saturday after a leadoff walk to Tommy Pham. Rafael Devers doubled to left field, scoring Xander Bogaerts, who reached on a fielders' choice removing Pham from the bases. The Rangers offense had issues against the Red Sox rookie all day, while the Rangers' pitchers had traffic to deal with early on but worked out of trouble. Boston walked twice in the fifth inning, where a balk advanced them to second and third. Bogaerts reached as Corey Seager went home and got away from Meibrys Viloria. Then Devers hit into a force-out, which scored Alex Verdugo, extending the Red Sox lead to 3-0. "It cost us some runs," Tony Beasley said about the errors on Saturday. "The thing about baseball is you got to play 27 outs [and] nine innings of baseball. It's important that we take care of the baseball and [we] did not do that again tonight."
In the sixth, the Red Sox had another chance with a runner at second and nobody out. Christian Arroyo bunted Trevor Story over, but Reese McGuire struck out, and Pham grounded out to keep the game at three runs. Boston added a run with a couple of errors. One by Adolis García in right field, allowing the runners at first and second to move up. Then, Ezequiel Duran's error allowed Bogaerts to score to make it 4-0. Story added another run on the fifth double by Boston. The double scored Devers. The Rangers got on the board with a Marcus Semien two run home run over the green monster to cut the Boston lead to 5-2. Next, Nathaniel Lowe went deep the opposite field over the monster to add another run. The Rangers loaded the bases with one out in the ninth inning. But Semien struck out and Seager grounded out to end the game. "Early on, the shadows were tough for both teams mid-game. The last couple of innings they settled down a little bit and kind of all over the place. Then the [bats] started coming through," Beasley said in the difference between early and late.
Dennis Santana walked the first batter of his afternoon, which ended up scoring (it was Bogaerts, though, because of the force out). Santana threw two innings while allowing one run, two hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. Dennis threw thirty-six pitches. Taylor Hearn had to deal with doubles in each of the two innings he worked, but Hearn struck out four and didn't allow a run during his outing Saturday. Brock Burke's inning struggled due to defensive miscues. He did walk two in the inning with a balk, but an error scored a run which continued the inning. Burke struck out two. Kohei Arihara threw two innings and allowed two runs (one earned) with four hits, a walk, and struck out one. It was a decent bounce back for Kohei after a struggling start last Sunday. Brett Martin threw a scoreless ninth inning going three-up and three-down.
Postgame Notes
Three of the Red Sox's four runs scored Saturday on walks, despite the team hitting four doubles. Kohei Arihara made his first MLB relief appearance. He made four minor league appearances out of the pen.
Dennis Santana made his first MLB start on Saturday. Santana made seventy-seven starts in the Minor Leagues, including three in 2021 with Oklahoma City.
During the seven-game skid, the opposition has scored first in six of the seven games (September 1st the only one).
In his last 5.2 innings (three outings), Santana has allowed two hits, one run, and ten strikeouts.
Taylor Hearn has a 2.51 ERA (28.1 IP and twelve appearances) when he comes out of the bullpen. However, when starting a game, he has a 6.25 ERA (thirteen starts).
Despite the win, the Red Sox were 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. The Rangers went 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position. Texas was 1 for 3 in the ninth with RISP.
Mark Mathias has reached base in eight of the ten games as a Texas Ranger, one of the two games he didn't reach was a one-at-bat pinch-hit appearance.
Rangers are 10-23 vs. the Red Sox since the beginning of 2017.
Since May 28th, Marcus Semien has hit 21 home runs. Corey Seager also has 21 home runs from that point. Nathaniel Lowe has hit 20 homers from that date.
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