Bradley Jr Gets First Career Home Run, As Red Sox Dismantle Rangers 17-5

Red Sox rookie Jackie Bradley Jr watches his first career home run travel to the seats 

The Red Sox absolutely crushed the Rangers in the series opener, by 17-5! And they literally did dismantle the Rangers, considering they had their outfielder pitch, I'll get back to that. First, let's talk about Dempster's outing. This was his first outing against his former team, that he was with for half the season last year, and he went 7 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, and struck out 6, an improvement, but he did give up 2 home runs, and I still have yet to trust him. Anyways he took the win to make his record 3-6. Ok now the offense. They DOMINATED, getting 19 HITS, and 17 RUNS. Their highest amount of runs this season. Mostly everyone did great. They scored in each inning except for the 8th, and 9th, in which they couldn't. The Sox led 2-0 through the first, and a guy named Jackie Bradley Jr extended the lead getting his first career home run to make it 4-0. Also, in that inning Ortiz got a triple, his first since April 2011. That was probably the most exciting inning of the game as their offense was just getting started scoring 6 runs in the 2nd. I'll talk about the 8th since it was an odd inning. The Rangers were down 17-5 at that point and gave up so they called in their left fielder David Murphy to come in and pitch. Most of his pitches were 67 MPH - 75 MPH, at one point peaking at 79 MPH. Anyways, he struck out Carp on an odd 67 MPH curve ball and which I guess he just got Carp looking, though it was a little high of a pitch. Carp was not happy with the call and he said a few words to the umpire and was later tossed from the game, and to be honest, I wouldn't blame him, the umpire kind of embarrassed him calling a strike for a position player pitcher who never pitched before.

Anyways, Nava went 3-4 with an RBI, Carp went 3-4 with a home run and 3 RBI's, Ortiz went 2-6 with 3 RBI's, Salty went 3-5 with a home run and 3 RBI's, Drew went 4-5 with a home run and 2 RBI's, Iglesias went 2-5 with 2 RBI's, AND, finally, Bradley Jr went 1-5 with a home run and 3 RBI's.

Man what an offensive game... Also, during this game, Iglesias saw some time at second, filling in for an inning for Pedroia. So with this win, the Red Sox are 36-23 and hold a 2 game lead over the Yankees, for first place in the division. Game 60, tonight will see John Lackey (3-5, 2.96 ERA) VS the Rangers and Alexi Ogando (4-2, 3.08 ERA). Lackey has been great at Fenway this year, and in his last starts he has also pitched great, BUT his career stats verse the Rangers aren't too good, hopefully he does good.

- DJ