Red Sox spoil Eovaldi’s return: Bats rally vs Rangers, Wong with 3 hits

The Boston Red Sox took the series against the Texas Rangers on Thursday night with a 10-6 win. The Sox are coming off a win from the performance from Brayan Bello on Wednesday night after the loss on Independence Day on Tuesday.

Kutter Crawford opened up for the Red Sox where he pitched only four innings allowing seven hits and three earned runs and struck out three batters. Then Joe Jacques relieved Crawford and had a chaotic outing in the 5th inning while allowing 2 runs, while striking out three before being relieved in the 6th by Brandon Walter. Josh Winchkowski got his third win of the season by stranding the runners who loaded the bases by grounding out Ezequiel Duran in the 7th inning and then the rally by the offense.

The Sox faced Nathan Eovaldi on his first return to Fenway since leaving the Sox in the offseason to sign with the Rangers. Eovaldi would pitch 5 1/3 innings allowing four earned runs on five hits, walking four and striking out three, he would face a no decision as the Sox would hand the loss to Josh Sborz.

Shortly before the game, The Sox re-signed Jorge Alfaro after he opted out of his minor league contract in June while he spent most of the season in Worcester. Alfaro had a stint with the Colorado Rockies, where he played 10 games with the ballclub before being designated for assignment. In response, the Sox sent down catcher Caleb Hamliton to Worcester. Alfaro backed up Wong for this game.

Red Sox have a rally to win started by Rob Refsnyder

In the 6th inning after being down 5-3, Rob Refsnyder would pinch hit for Jarren Duran and David Hamliton, who is likely in his last game before assignment to Worcester. Refsnyder would be clutch by scoring Kike Hernandez on a RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-4. After this Hernandez shifted from second base to shortstop, and then Christian Arroyo took second.

Then when the Sox entered the bottom of the 7th inning. The rally started when Rafael Devers had a double and advanced Adam Duvall to third after he was issued a walk. Both of them would score on a 2-run single from Hernandez to take the lead.

Christian Arroyo and Connor Wong would each follow up with RBI single to make it 8-5. After Wong got out at second base, and Alex Verdugo reached first on the fielder’s choice Justin Turner and Yoshida would each have RBI singles. After Devers would make the bases loaded with an infield single, Josh LeClerc would strand the runners after striking out Duvall.

Red Sox player of the game: Connor Wong collects three hits

Connor Wong started his day with a single in the 2nd inning that advanced Hernandez to second before Dugie would fly out to right field for the 3rd out. Then in the 4th,  Wong would hit his 17th double of the season off Eovaldi. Wong would then be hit by pitch by Brock Burke in the 6th before his RBI that scored Hernandez in the 7th.

This is Wong’s 3rd three-hit game this season, where he had a stretch that he had 2 of these games in four days between April 29 and May 2 against the Cleveland Guardians and Toronto Blue Jays.

For the time being, while Reese McGwire is on the injured list, Wong and Alfaro will make a good hitting duo.

The Red Sox will face off against the Oakland Athletics in a three-game weekend series before the All-Star break. Brennan Bernadino will get the nod as the starting pitcher for Friday.