Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pomeranz helps Boston nab fourth straight win
BOSTON — Drew Pomeranz pitched six strong innings and tied his career high with 11 strikeouts to lift the Boston Red Sox to a 6-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.
Xander Bogaerts and Deven Marrero hit their first home runs of the season helping Boston to its fourth straight win.
Pomeranz (4-3) made it as far as six innings for the third time this season and beat Texas for the first time in nine career outings.
Elvis Andrus homered and Nomar Mazara had two hits and an RBI for Texas, which has lost four of five overall and 15 of 21 on the road.
Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Moreland had RBI singles in the first inning as Boston got to Rangers starter Nick Martinez (1-3) early.
Bogaerts hit a two-run homer in the third to put Boston ahead 4-0. Despite finishing with 21 home runs last year, Bogaerts needed 46 games to connect for the first time this season.
Red Sox pitchers combined for 20 strikeouts. Reliever Craig Kimbrel had four strikeouts in the ninth when the first batter reached on a wild pitch strike three.
Mike Napoli struck out four times while Pete Kozma and Andrus went down three times each. Every Ranger starter struck out at least once as they finished one shy of the club record.
Marrero homered in the eighth off Alex Claudio.
Martinez gave up four runs in five innings and is winless in four starts against Boston with a 6.46 ERA.
Andrus cut Boston's lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning with the homer, snapping an 0-for-9 drought.
Moreland tied his career high by driving in at least one run for the sixth straight game and extended his hitting streak to seven games, batting .393 in that stretch.
Boston swept Texas for the first time at Fenway Park since 2008. Since 2009, Texas has the best winning percentage at Fenway Park in the major leagues at .600.
ASTROS 7, TIGERS 6 Jake Marisnick hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning for Houston’s fourth homer of the game, lifting the Astros to a 7-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night. The Tigers tied it 6-6 in the top of the eighth when Jose Iglesias doubled off reliever Luke Gregerson (2-1) to drive in Andrew Romine. Marisnick’s homer to deep center off Detroit reliever Alex Wilson (1-2) gave Houston the lead back. Ken Giles got the last three outs for his 13th save as the Astros won three of four from the Tigers.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
PIRATES 9, BRAVES 4 Ivan Nova pitched into the ninth inning, Adam Frazier hit a three-run homer and the Pittsburgh Pirates pounded Bartolo Colon for a 9-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday. The Pirates split the four-game series at SunTrust Park after losing the first two contests. This one was easy after Pittsburgh put up five runs in the third inning, capped by Frazier’s third homer this season.
CUBS 5, GIANTS 1 Kris Bryant, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist hit solo homers, and the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Thursday for their third straight win. Spot starter Eddie Butler (2-0) allowed one run and four hits in five innings, and Mike Montgomery pitched one-hit ball over four innings for his first professional save. Jeff Samardzija (1-6) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. He also gave up three home runs against Arizona in his first start of the season on April 6.