ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adolis García put Texas ahead to stay with his first homer of the season after an earlier two-run double and the Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Saturday night.
García went deep leading off the fourth for a 3-2 lead. His 414-foot drive to left field came on a 79-mph sweeper pitch from Walker Buehler (0-1).
Kristian Campbell led off the Red Sox fourth with his first career homer. The rookie, starting in left field after his first two games at second base, almost prevented García’s two-run double in the first inning. He made diving play in the left-center gap and had the ball in his glove, but it rolled out after he hit the ground.
Hoby Milner (1-0), the third of six Texas pitchers, worked 1 1/3 innings for the win. Chris Martin, the Arlington native who pitched for Boston the past two seasons, pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts for his first save.
Buehler allowed four runs on seven hits over 4 1/3 innings in his . The 30-year-old right-hander was a two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion with the Dodgers, going 47-22 with 3.27 ERA in 131 games for Los Angeles. But he was 1-6 last year after missing all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Key moment
Rangers No. 9 batter Leody Taveras led off the fifth with a bunt single, stole second and scored on Marcus Semien’s single for a 4-2 lead.
Key stat
Rangers starter Tyler Mahle walked four of the 11 batters he faced. The last was a bases-loaded walk to Rafael Devers, who had struck out eight times in nine at-bats before that, including in the first.
Up next
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom, limited to nine starts in his first two seasons with the Rangers because of elbow surgery in 2023, starts the series finale Sunday. Rookie right-hander Richard Fitts goes for Boston.
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