Rangers power past Sox in series finale

ARLINGTON, Texas — Adolis Garcia and Kole Calhoun each hit two home runs, Martin Perez pitched six strong innings and the Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 7-1 on Sunday.

Texas trailed 1-0 and didn’t have a hit until Calhoun led off the bottom of the fifth with an oppositefield homer into the visitors’ bullpen in left-center.

Garcia broke the 1-1 tie with two out and two men on base in the sixth. He hit an 0-1 pitch from Boston’s Ryan Brasier (0-2), took 10 steps down the first base line while watching the ball disappear into the rightcenter field bullpen, dropped his bat, pointed toward the Texas dugout and broke into a trot.

“He was pointing at Martin Perez,” an interpreter for Garcia said. “He had told him prior to that at-bat that he was going to win this game for him.”

Perez confirmed Garcia had made that pledge.

“He crushed that pitch,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, second-guessing himself about pitching to Garcia. “Maybe it should be me going to the mound. We had the lefty ready for Calhoun. A swing and miss, a walk, two outs. Take the next matchup and see what happens.”

Two pitches later, Calhoun sent another homer the other way against Brasier.

In Calhoun’s first season with Texas, he had only one home run before Sunday.