Red Sox 7, Rangers 1: Texas Bats Overmatched By Pivetta
ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Texas Rangers dropped Friday night's season opener against the Boston Red Sox, losing by a score of 7-1. With the loss, Texas falls to 13-18 on the season.
Kole Calhoun led the way for the Rangers offense, going 3-for-4 with a triple in the seventh inning—the only extra-base hit on the night for Texas. The Rangers' only run of the game immediately followed when Calhoun scored on a wild pitch.
That was all the offense could muster. In fact, Nathaniel Lowe provided the only other hit for the Rangers, snapping a 0-for-22 skid in the process. Texas went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base.
Boston's starter Nick Pivetta carried a 0-4 record and 6.08 ERA into Friday night's game, but the Rangers could not figure out how to beat him.
"[We had] a lot of just-misses today," Woodward said. "Pivetta has a good fastball. I know it doesn't show up on the radar, but his 92 (mph) feels like 95. He's done that his whole career. ... That's how he pitches and we weren't able to lower our sights a little bit to get some of those [fly balls] to be line drives."
Rangers starter Dane Dunning had a solid start to the game, allowing just one run in the first five innings of the ballgame. The Red Sox got to him in the sixth a sacrifice fly by Trevor Story sandwiched between a pair of RBI doubles to give Boston a 4-0 lead, ending Dunning's outing after 5 2/3 innings.
“I just didn't execute pitches when I needed to,” Dunning said. “The defense really needed me to get out there and get an out, hopefully a swing and miss, but I just kind of left a couple of cutters middle-middle. If I execute those pitches, it's totally different.”
The Red Sox added another run in the sixth, then two more in the seventh courtesy of a two-run single by Xander Bogaerts.
What's Next?
The Rangers and Red Sox continue their three-game series at Globe Life Field on Saturday evening. Glenn Otto (1-0, 3.14 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Rangers, facing off against veteran left-hander Rich Hill (0-1, 2.86 ERA).
