There hasn’t been a whole lot of success for David Ortiz when Neal Cotts is pitching to him, but this time Big Papi came out with his hand on top, hitting a three-run homer in the eighth inning to bring back the Boston Red Sox from behind and seal a 4-2 win over the Texas Rangers.
The Red Sox entered the 7th inning with a 1-0 lead thanks to Dustin Pedroia hitting a single and Jonny Gomes scoring thanks to an error by Robbie Ross (who overall had a good game) and Jake Peavy doing an excellent job on the mound, striking out eight batters.
But when he came up against Mitch Moreland in the 7th all that great work from earlier on didn’t mean anything as the first baseman hit his first home run of the season to put the Rangers level with the Red Sox. An inning later, with Peavy already gone from the mound and Andrew Miller throwing, a sacrifice fly from Alex Rios helped Elvin Andrus score and put the Rangers on top with a chance to clinch the series at Fenway.
But then came Ortiz with his huge home run that had to be reviewed because of a the pole making things look a bit dubious, but the score stood, and with him Jackie Bradley Jr. and Pedroia got to score, making it 8 RBIs this season for Ortiz, while Koji Uehara sealed the deal with his pitching, getting his second save of the season.
Ortiz was 0-for-5 against Cotts when he came on to try and save the game. Two men on, 1 out, chances were against the pitcher, who ended up blowing his second save of the season mostly because of the trouble Alexi Ogando put him in earlier by allowing two men on base.
Peavy finished with 6.2 innings of work, allowing three hits and one run, waling four players and striking out eight. In his second start of the season, he’s still without a decision to his name, leaving after six innings and a tied ball game on the previous one.
The Red Sox now head into their first series with the New York Yankees – a four game series at the Bronx, as Clay Buchholz starts for the Red Sox, hoping to last longer than he did on his first time out this season (only 4.1 innings). The Rangers head back home to host the Houston Astros for three games, getting Yu Darvish (1-0, 0.00 ERA) to start for them in the first game.