Sox score last rally
Benintendi a big hit after Kimbrel falters
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Red Sox offense is very much alive.
And thanks to old friend Mike Napoli, it had to be.
Napoli hit a laser beam of a solo home run off closer Craig Kimbrel to tie things up in the ninth inning, but Andrew Benintendi came up with a tworun single in the 11th as the Sox topped the Texas Rangers, 7-5, at Globe Life Park last night.
“We came back in a number of ways,” manager John Farrell said. “We picked one another up from the mound, the plate, defensively — this is a very good team win.”
The Red Sox have won five straight, scoring 41 runs in the process. They’ve scored at least six runs in five consecutive games, their longest such streak of the season.
For most of the season, the Sox averaged just under four runs per game, below the MLB average, but have since bumped up to 4.89 per game, better than all but seven teams.
“It was a good win,” Mookie Betts said. “We just continued to put up zeroes. The pitching staff was great. And we were able to put together an inning.”
The 11th-inning rally began with a one-out walk by No. 9 hitter Tzu-Wei Lin, who advanced to third on a rocket double by Betts. With runners on second and third, the Rangers intentionally walked Dustin Pedroia, who was 3-for-5 with four RBI, to get to Benintendi, who had entered the game as a pinch hitter in the ninth.
Benintendi blooped a single off Ernesto Frieri over the drawn-in Rangers infield to bring home Lin and Betts with the goahead runs.
Kimbrel had just one blown save all season until Napoli beat him on a 98-mph heater. The first pitch of the ninth inning flew over the inside part of the plate and was easy pickings for Napoli, who cranked it over the left field wall for the 5-5 tie.
It was just the 13th hit and second home run Kimbrel has allowed all season. The All-Star closer had entered the game with a 1.01 ERA and 64 strikeouts to just five walks in 352⁄ innings.
Napoli was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts and a walk off Kimbrel in his career before the long ball.
If it weren’t for a headsup play by Pedroia, who was in vintage form in this one, the Rangers would have been in position to win the game in the ninth. After Napoli homered, Carlos Gomez hit a dribbler down the third base line, forcing Deven Marrero to charge and make a running throw that sailed wide of first baseman Mitch Moreland. Gomez ran through the base and took a turn toward second, unaware that Pedroia had backed up the play and was playing the carom off the low wall in foul territory. In one smooth motion, Pedroia dived forward, snatched the ball with his bare hand and threw to first base, where Gomez, who was scrambling back, was tagged out by Moreland.
“Huge RBI knock, and then the plays he was making defensively, he was all over the place,” starter Rick Porcello said of Pedroia.
Pedroia drove in two with a single in the second inning, waved in the goahead run on a wild pitch in the sixth and followed up immediately with another two-run base hit that gave the Red Sox a 5-2 lead.
But Porcello, who was in the midst of his finest start of the season, served up a solo shot to Gomez with one out in the seventh, and Robbie Scott and Joe Kelly combined to allow another run in the eighth that brought Texas to within a run, at 5-4.
For most of his 61⁄ innings, 3 Porcello pitched like the reigning Cy Young Award winner for the first time all season.
Throwing an unusually high number of sliders and delivering all five of his pitches with precise command, Porcello dazzled against a difficulttoTexas lineup. He allowed three hits, including the solo homer to Gomez and earlier one by Rougned Odor.
The hit total marked a season-best for Porcello, who had allowed at least five hits in every start this season, and at least eight hits in nine of his last 10 starts.
“We had a better mix of pitches tonight,” Porcello said. “We threw a lot of breaking balls early and stayed with that over the course of the game and it seemed to work out. So maybe that’s the direction we continue to go and throw some more breaking balls and keep them off balance.”