Trevor Story’s three-run shot wipes out Texas’ fast start in 4-3 Red Sox comeback

Texas had the cleaner first act

The Rangers did not need much to build their lead. Josh Jung opened the scoring with a solo home run to right in the first inning, and Texas added two more in the second when Danny Jansen singled to center to bring home Wyatt Langford before Evan Carter’s sacrifice bunt scored Jake Burger. That was three runs from a lineup that finished with only four hits, which tells you how sharp Texas was at converting its early opportunities.

Jansen’s 2-for-3 night stood out in a compact Texas box score, and Jung supplied the only extra-base damage with his 369-foot homer. After that, though, Boston starter Sonny Gray stopped the game from drifting away. Gray worked 6 1/3 innings, allowed three runs on three hits, struck out six and threw 67 strikes in 102 pitches. The Rangers had the lead, but they never expanded it after the second inning, and that restraint became the foundation of Boston’s comeback.

Texas’ pitching plan looked sturdy for most of the night. Tyler Alexander covered the first inning, Cody Bradford gave the Rangers 4 1/3 scoreless frames, and Chase Silseth added 2/3 of an inning with two strikeouts. Boston’s offense looked thin on the surface, but it was not absent. The Red Sox saw 167 pitches, drew five walks and added a hit batter, even while going scoreless through six and leaving traffic scattered all over the game.

One mistake, then one hammer swing

Boston’s first run arrived in the seventh inning, and it came less from force than from pressure. Roman Anthony grounded into a fielder’s choice to shortstop, Nate Eaton scored on the play, and Anthony wound up safe at second when second baseman Nicky Lopez made a throwing error. It was Texas’ only error of the game, but it changed the shape of the eighth. A 3-0 cushion had become 3-1, and suddenly the Rangers needed six more outs instead of three comfortable ones.

Then Story provided the kind of swing that wipes out an entire evening’s worth of frustration. In the eighth inning, with Wilyer Abreu and Isiah Kiner-Falefa aboard, Story drove a 394-foot homer to left-center. Boston had managed just five hits all night, and Story owned two of them. More important, he owned three RBIs, and all of them came in one blow that turned a one-run chase into a 4-3 lead.

From there, Boston’s relief work finished what Gray had stabilized. Wyatt Olds recorded a scoreless inning, Alec Gamboa got the final two outs of the eighth without allowing a run, and Garrett Whitlock handled the ninth for the save. The Red Sox bullpen covered the final 2 2/3 innings with one hit allowed and no runs. For a game that looked like it belonged to Texas by the second inning, Boston suddenly had the cleaner final third.

Our take: patience kept the door open

This was not a classic case of one team hitting its way to a comeback. Boston batted .156, produced only five hits and stranded 15 runners. But the Red Sox kept asking for one more pitch, one more walk, one more chance to make Texas execute perfectly. That is why the 167 pitches seen matter as much as Story’s homer. A lineup can look quiet and still keep the game alive, and Boston did exactly that long enough for one hitter to change it.

Texas, on the other hand, will look at the late innings and see how expensive small losses became. The Rangers used seven pitchers, and the stretch involving Robby Ahlstrom and Jakob Junis produced three walks and three runs across one inning of work. Add Lopez’s throwing error and the team mark of two inherited runners scored out of four, and the problem becomes pretty plain: with an offense that managed four hits, Texas could not afford to hand over extra baserunners. Boston also has its own warning inside the win. A comeback this narrow does not erase the fact that the Red Sox went 5-for-32 and needed Story’s homer to rescue an offense that left too much unfinished. The result was impressive; the process, for both clubs, was far less comfortable than the final score suggests.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Jung homered to right (369 feet).

2. 2nd Inning

   Jansen singled to center, Langford scored, Burger to third.

3. 2nd Inning

   Carter hit sacrifice bunt to first, Burger scored, Jansen to second.

4. 7th Inning

   Anthony grounded into fielder's choice to shortstop, Eaton scored on error, Anthony safe at second on throwing error by second baseman Lopez, Durbin to second.

5. 8th Inning

   Story homered to left center (394 feet), Abreu scored and Kiner-Falefa scored.