Rangers 7, Red Sox 3: Eovaldi Comes Out of the Pen and Texas Ties the West

His song in the sixth, and 11 in a row after that

September 16, 2026 - Arlington - Gary Clark Jr.'s cover of "Come Together" is Nathan Eovaldi's walk-up music. Globe Life Field does not usually hear it in the sixth. The crowd of 26,364 stood anyway. Josh Jung told the MLB recap he heard the song coming up the steps and thought, "Oh shoot, here we go."

Eovaldi threw four scoreless innings out of the bullpen. One hit. One strikeout. Zero walks. Forty-six pitches. He retired the last 11 batters he faced. The Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3, took the series, got back to .500 (76-76), and pulled even with Houston atop the American League West.

Roof closed. 74 degrees. First pitch 7:08 p.m. The game lasted 2 hours, 42 minutes. Texas had 13 hits. Boston had three. Eovaldi is 11-9. The MLB recap said it was his third career relief win and his first since August 14, 2019, against Cleveland, when he was still with Boston.

Manager Skip Schumaker compared the entrance to a closer's ninth. "You know that type of feeling in the ninth inning when the music goes on, and the lights go out," he said, per the MLB recap. "But it was early in the game, you're just not used to feeling it. But I felt it."

Gore grabbed at his back. Contreras had already gone deep.

MacKenzie Gore lasted four innings. Two hits. Three runs. Three walks. Zero strikeouts. Sixty-nine pitches, 36 strikes. Willson Contreras hit a two-run homer to left-center in the first, Wilyer Abreu aboard, his 27th. 2-0 Boston.

The MLB recap said Gore grabbed at his back after a 2-1 pitch to Caleb Durbin in the second. Schumaker, pitching coach Jordan Tiegs, and head trainer Matt Lucero visited. Gore stayed in. Velocity was down. Command was worse. He was still there because September is all hands. Jakob Junis threw a scoreless fifth after him. Then Schumaker called for Eovaldi.

Texas had already climbed back. Jake Burger hit a ground-rule double in the first, Justin Foscue scoring. 2-1. Foscue singled Wyatt Langford home in the fourth. 2-2. Boston went back in front 3-2 in the fifth on a Mickey Gasper groundout. Langford singled Jung home in the bottom half. 3-3. Jung finished 3-for-5 with two doubles. Burger went 2-for-4 with a walk. Foscue had two hits.

Jake Bennett started for Boston and lasted 4 2/3: eight hits, three runs, one walk, seven strikeouts, 91 pitches. Greg Weissert got through the sixth. Erik Miller inherited the tie in the seventh and did not keep it. He is 4-1, and Wednesday is the loss.

Nimmo's double, Duran's single, and a 7-3 that felt like October

Corey Seager was on in the seventh. Burger too. Brandon Nimmo doubled to center, Seager scoring, Burger to third. 4-3. ESPN's recap called it the tiebreaking double. Ezequiel Duran singled to left. Burger scored. Nimmo scored. 6-3. Three runs, two swings, and Eovaldi had a lead he was not going to give back.

Alejandro Osuna scored on Seager's single in the eighth. 7-3. Eovaldi had already started retiring everyone in a row. The MLB recap said he is the first Rangers pitcher to earn the win and throw four or more scoreless frames to end a game since Jamey Wright on September 25, 2007, against the Angels.

Schumaker had said it was all hands for this 12-game stretch. Eovaldi was activated September 12 after five weeks out with an elbow injury, the MLB recap said. This was his second relief appearance since that activation. "I know what Evo means to this organization, to the fanbase, and to that clubhouse," Schumaker said. "You know to see him walk out of that bullpen in front of the home crowd in a tie game and then to end up closing the game, you know that was a significant moment and you know something that I'll remember for a long time."

Eovaldi told the MLB recap there was a different energy. Gore battled. Texas finished it. The box score is cleaner: four innings, one hit, a win, and 11 in a row.

.500, a West tie, and one game off the last Wild Card

Texas is 76-76. Houston is 76-76 after a 5-2 loss to Kansas City. The Astros own the tiebreaker, the MLB recap said. The Rangers still sit one game back of the third American League Wild Card. Boston is 82-70. A Wednesday in Arlington does not knock the Red Sox out of anything. It does send Texas into the last stretch with Eovaldi looking like the version that made Globe Life Field stand up in the sixth.

Boston got Contreras's homer, three hits, and an error. That is a 7-3 on the road when the other club's co-ace walks in from the bullpen. Miller took the loss. Raymond Burgos allowed the eighth-inning run. The Red Sox left three on base and never put a runner on against Eovaldi after he entered.

Jung had three hits. Nimmo had the double that flipped it. Duran drove in two. The lineup did not need a homer once Contreras's was already on the board. It needed the seventh. It got the seventh. Then it got Eovaldi for four.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Eovaldi at 14 pitching fantasy points. Contreras had 8 hitting FP. Texas finished with 14 team FP, fifth on a 15-game Wednesday. Boston finished at minus-2.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*