(Saturday, April 2nd)
Final Score: Texas 12, Boston 5
Arlington, TX (Sports Network) – Ian Kinsler smacked another leadoff home run and Adrian Beltre hit a grand slam in another powerful offensive performance, leading the Texas Rangers to a 12-5 win over the Boston Red Sox.
According to the Rangers, Kinsler was the first player in major league history to hit leadoff home runs in his team’s first two games of the season. He sparked Texas’ 9-5 win in the season-opener on Friday.
Yorvit Torrealba added a two-run homer and Nelson Cruz had a solo blast for the reigning American League champions, who will go for the three-game series sweep on Sunday.
Backed by a slew of runs, Colby Lewis (1-0) earned the win while giving up three runs on six hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out four.
John Lackey (0-1) took the loss after giving up nine runs and 10 hits in just 3 2/3 innings. David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury belted two-run homers for the Red Sox, who opened the season 0-2 for the first time since 2005.
Kinsler drove Lackey’s 3-1 pitch — a 90 mph fastball - just over the left center field wall to give Texas a 1-0 lead.
Still, the Rangers had to come from behind for the win after Ortiz, who hit a solo homer on Friday, belted a two-run shot off Lewis in the second inning.
Texas went ahead 3-2 when Elvis Andrus tripled home Kinsler in the third, then scored on Josh Hamilton’s single. Boston tied it on Ortiz’s RBI groundout in the top of the fourth, but the Rangers blew the game open with six runs in the bottom of the inning.
The first two runs came on Julio Borbon’s triple and Andrus’ double, but Beltre delivered the real blow when he hammered a 1-0 pitch into the first row of seats in left-center, making it 9-3.
Michael Young followed with a single, knocking Lackey out of the game, but was stranded at first.
The Rangers, after lifting their first-ever AL championship flag, have now scored 21 runs against the team many picked to win the pennant this year. They needed a four-run rally in the bottom of the eighth to beat Boston in the opener on Friday, but cruised through the final 4 1/2 innings of this one.
Texas added two runs in the fifth inning on Torrealba’s blast and another in the sixth on Cruz’s homer, which made it 12-3. Boston got its final two runs when Ellsbury homered off Mason Tobin in the seventh.
Game Notes
Lewis continued to shine after going 3-0 in the postseason for Texas last year…Lackey has struggled against the Rangers and carried a 5.74 ERA against them into the game. He fell to 11-13 versus Texas — his most losses against any team.