Steve Pearce continued his hot hitting since joining the team with a homer, JD Martinez also homered, and Eduardo Rodriguez threw nearly six innings of shutout baseball Monday night as the Boston Red Sox continued their torrid stretch with their seventh straight win, downing the Texas Rangers 5-0 at Fenway Park.
Pearce, in his first appearance at Fenway Park since being acquired from Toronto on 6/29, hit a 3-2 pitch into the Monster seats in the first inning for a two run homer after Martinez had reached on a two out single. Pearce is now 11-24, hitting at a .458 clip since joining the club. That is all the offense the Red Sox would need as Rodriguez and the bullpen took care of the rest. Martinez added the big insurance with his MLB leading 28th homer in the eighth inning, a three run blast. Martinez also leads the league with 77 RBI. Pearce, Martinez, Mookie Betts, and Andrew Benintendi all had two hits a piece for the majors top team now with a record of 63-29.
Rodriguez (11-3) went 5.2 innings, allowing no runs, three hits, three walks, with five strikeouts. Rodriguez left after two walks in the sixth, and his pitch count had reached 105. Heath Hembree, Brandon Workman, Joe Kelly, and Ryan Brasier pitched the final 3.1 innings out of the pen allowing no runs on just two hits. Texas (40-52) got five hits from five different players, and Mike Minor (6-5) pitched well in taking the loss allowing just two runs and six hits in 5.1 innings.
Boston will try to continue their streak in game two of the series Tuesday night at 7:10. Hector Velasquez will make a spot start for Boston, to be opposed by Yovani Gallardo for Texas.
