Jonah Heim slugged two homers and right-hander Jack Leiter picked up his first major league victory as the Texas Rangers recorded a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night in Arlington, Texas.
Jake Burger and Josh Jung also had run-scoring hits as the Rangers evened the four-game series at one game apiece.
Leiter (1-0) gave up one run and five hits over five innings for Texas. He struck out four and walked one.
Five relievers protected the lead, with Luke Jackson working a perfect ninth for his first save.
Boston’s Tanner Houck (0-1) gave up four runs and seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.
Wilyer Abreu drove in the lone Red Sox run and has five RBIs in two games. Abreu, Jarren Duran and Kristian Campbell had two hits apiece.
Free-agent signee Alex Bregman had his first hit and is 1-for-8. Bregman supplanted Rafael Devers at third base.
Now the designated hitter, Devers struck out in all four at-bats on Friday and is 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts this season.
Heim got Texas on the board when he homered to right on a 1-2 pitch to start the third inning.
Boston knotted the score in the fourth on singles by Trevor Story, Campbell and Abreu. Runners were still on the corners, but Leiter induced Connor Wong to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Heim delivered again with one out in the fifth as he swung at Houck’s first pitch and deposited the ball over the fence in right-center to give Texas a 2-1 lead.
The Rangers tacked on two more runs in the sixth. Burger stroked a two-out RBI double into the left field corner and then scored on Jung’s single to center.
The Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but came up empty as lefty Hoby Milner struck out Devers and got Bregman to bounce out to third.
