Oh, this felt good and was good to see. After a full week of the Red Sox blowing games and losing games they should’ve won, taking a series against the Rangers was huge. After losing the first game convincingly, the Red Sox rallied the final two games and were able to take the series. Plenty to chew on and digest for this series, so let’s dive into it!

Red Sox Offense Came Alive

We have seen this before and we sure saw it again this series. When the Red Sox are clicking and firing on all cylinders offensively, they can be a very tough team to beat. The offense had nothing to show against Nathan Eovaldi (we will get there), but they managed to deliver the rest of the way to be able to take the series.

When the Red Sox needed a timely hit, they got one. The Red Sox can chalk this one up to the Wilyer Abreu and Alex Bregman game. It was a dead lock tie at this point in the game and Abreu hit a monstrous double and off a lefty to drive in a run. The best part? It was off a lefty. Abreu has struggled against lefties in his career, hitting .180 last season. Hes been much better this season and it was good to see skipper Alex Cora give him the chance to shine. He touched on it after the game saying,

“He’s earned the right to face tough lefties” -Alex Cora on why he didn’t consider pinch hitting for Wilyer Abreu in the sixth inning against Hoby Milner.

Abreu went 3/4 in the game and with 3 RBI’s and two home runs. Bregman went 3/4 with 3 RBI’s and hit his 200th career home run. Rafael Devers got to be the hero in the finale, hitting a two run home run and having five total bases. But the most important thing was the bats limited the strikeouts.

After striking out for 10+ times in the first game, the Red Sox limited their strikeouts in the final two games. They struck out a combined 8 times, with striking out just once in the second game. That’s huge for the Red Sox all things considered.

While the bats came to life, the pitching for the rotation was iffy this series.

Pitching for the Red Sox was Iffy

This series saw the pitching be iffy in this series. Let’s start with the first game, where Lucas Giolito took the mound. He was coming off an impressive outing in his debut against the Blue Jays. He failed to build off that and had a horrendous outing against the Rangers. The weather was a factor, but that did not matter to the Rangers.

Giolito got shelled, especially the fourth inning, where he allowed seven hits and five runs and then got yanked. The worst part was that he utilized a two pitch mix, showing his fastball and change up. At that point the Rangers just had a game plan and it did not matter. Giolito had zero command and was hanging pitches way over the plate. As poor as the Rangers offense has been, they are going to smash those.

Tanner Houck was actually okay. But what a tough day at the office for Brayan Bello, who has been quite reliable with a 2.55 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP coming into this game. While he did not allow an earned run (which is a surprise) given the amount of traffic he allowed on the bases. Bello had FIVE walks and one strikeout and gave up one hit. That’s huge that the Rangers could not strike with RISP.

The pitching will need to be sharper, as they face a Royals team that has turned a corner and is getting into a better grove.

Nathan Eovaldi Continues to Demolish this Team

As a fan, I miss Nathan Eovaldi. Eovaldi has continued to dominate against the Red Sox, especially this season. He has made two starts against the Red Sox and he has shoved the baseball down their throats each and every time. Here are his outings this season against the Red Sox:

Nathan Eovaldi first outing against the Red Sox: 9 strikeouts. 3 hits. 2ER

Nathan Eovaldi second outing against the Red Sox: 7 strikeouts. 5 H. 1 ER

He absolutely pitched magnificent against the Sox this year

16 strikeouts in two starts. Pretty good. The Rangers have a gem in Eovaldi.