ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered and had an RBI triple among his trio of hits, and Willie Calhoun’s three hits included a two-run homer as the Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 8-6 on Saturday night.
Josh Sborz (2-1) allowed one run in relief and struck out three of the five batters he faced to earn the win. Ian Kennedy whiffed all three hitters in the ninth inning for his sixth save in six opportunities.
Calhoun’s homer off Matt Andriese (0-1) in the sixth gave Texas a 6-5 lead. Kiner-Falefa tripled home Charlie Culberson later in the inning.
“It’s pretty cool to see we’re not far from where we want to be, but we have a lot of work to do,” Kiner-Falefa said after the Rangers’ second win in the first three games of the series. “You see a young team competing with the AL East front-runner.”
Andriese gave up three runs and three hits in one inning.
Back-to-back doubles by Calhoun and Culberson in the eighth produced Texas’ eighth run.
Calhoun began the season on the 10-day injured list with a groin strain after being limited to 29 games last year because of injuries.
“It feels good that I was able to get away in the offseason and be able to regroup,” Calhoun said. “It definitely feels good to finally feel like that again.”
Looking to become the American League’s first five-game winner, Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez left with a 5-4 lead after five innings. He allowed eight hits and threw 67 pitches.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the eye test told him Rodriguez wasn’t sharp, and the left-hander agreed.
“I want to go up there most of the game,” Rodriguez said. “It was a good decision — take me out of the game after those four runs. Can’t complain.”
Hunter Renfroe hit a two-run homer and J.D. Martinez had two singles and an RBI for Boston. Martinez went into play leading the majors with 25 RBIs.
Joely Rodriguez retired Xander Bogaerts on a bases-loaded grounder to leave the Red Sox scoreless in the eighth. Boston also left the bases loaded in the fifth, finished 4 for 13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 overall.
“We had a chance to put them away, and we didn’t,” Cora said.
Texas starter Jordan Lyles gave up five runs in four innings and failed to win at home for the third time in three games this season.
Renfroe pulled a slider into the second deck in the second inning to give Boston a 2-0 lead.
Kiner-Falefa’s fourth homer of the season matched his career high in only 28 games. His triple came on a liner just over the glove of second baseman Christian Arroyo that barely got past Renfroe in the right-center gap and rolled to the wall.
SHORT HOPS
Calhoun and Nate Lowe each has a career-best eight-game hitting streak. … The Red Sox are 9-3 on the road. … Among the biggest cheers of the evening came when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was shown on the videoboards.
ROTATION TWEAK?
With Rangers RHP Kohei Arihara having allowed 11 earned runs and five homers in only 4 2/3 innings over his last two starts, manager Chris Woodard said he’s considering pushing back Arihara. A short-term replacement could be LHP Hyeon-jong Yang, who has pitched 4 1/3 innings in each of his two relief appearances and allowed only two total runs.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Red Sox: OF Kiké Hernández was out of the starting lineup for the second straight game after running into the center-field wall Thursday night. He entered in the eighth inning. … Cora came out to check on Rafael Devers at the plate when he appeared to hurt a shoulder, but Devers completed the at-bat.
UP NEXT
Red Sox RHP Garrett Richards (1-2, 4.94 ERA) will start Sunday’s finale of the four-game series, having recorded season highs Tuesday with seven innings, 93 pitches and 10 strikeouts in beating the New York Mets 2-1. He’ll face Rangers RHP Mike Foltynewicz (1-3, 4.61), who comes off a 6-1 win over the Angels on Tuesday. He allowed eight home runs in his previous four starts.
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