Wyatt Langford hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to tie the game, and Jonah Heim followed with a two-run homer in the 10th inning to help the Texas Rangers secure a 9-7 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night, avoiding a three-game sweep.
“Those are huge at-bats,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said about Heim’s and Langford’s home runs. “It’s hard to have a bigger home run than that, down three to tie it there. So, good for him. We needed this win in the worst way. You’re always hoping when you have a game like this that it does do a lot for the club.”
Heim’s homer came on the first pitch from Boston reliever Zach Kelly (4-2), bringing in automatic runner Ezequiel Duran.
Langford’s seventh homer of the season was off Josh Winckowski, who began the ninth inning by allowing consecutive singles to Corey Seager and Josh Smith. Smith scored on Langford’s home run.
“I knew it was a home run off the bat and I watched it just to make sure,” said the rookie Langford. “It was really cool, especially in that situation and for us to end up winning the game, it was really cool.”
Matt Festa (1-1) got the win, and Kirby Yates earned his 21st save of the season with a scoreless 10th inning.
Texas, the defending World Series champions, ended a three-game losing streak and won for the fifth time in their last 18 games.
The Rangers scored first when Langford, who led off the second inning with a single off Boston starter Tanner Houck, came home on Leody Tavares’ sacrifice fly. The Red Sox responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Danny Jansen walked from Texas starter Dane Dunning, Dominic Smith singled, and Jansen scored on Nick Sogard’s groundout. Sogard then scored on a single from David Hamilton.
Boston extended its lead to 4-2 with two runs in the sixth inning as Wilyer Abreu hit his 13th home run of the season and pinch hitter Romy Gonzalez had a sacrifice fly to score Masataka Yoshida.
Adolis Garcia homered to lead off the sixth and again in the eighth for Texas, bringing his season total to 20. It was the eighth multi-homer game of his career and his first this season. Garcia’s second homer cut Boston’s lead to 4-3.
The Rangers tied the game when Langford and Duran reached on consecutive infield singles, with Langford scoring on a fielding error by third baseman Rafael Devers.
