ARLINGTON, Texas - Before the seventh-inning fireworks, Justin Foscue had already refused to let the night get away.
The second baseman doubled on the first pitch Jake Bennett threw, scored on Jake Burger's ground-rule double, and later punched an RBI single that tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth. By the time Brandon Nimmo and Ezequiel Duran broke the game open in the seventh, Texas already had a foothold - and Foscue had put it there.
The Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field, the Associated Press reported, climbing to 76-76 and into a first-place tie with Houston in the AL West after the Astros lost at home to Kansas City.
CBS Sports' box lists Foscue 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI. ESPN's recap matches the AP beat-by-beat: first-pitch double, run scored on Burger's drive, RBI single in the fourth. It was not the loudest swing of the night. It was the earliest, and in a September game that started with Willson Contreras' two-run homer, early mattered.
Setting the table while Boston led
Contreras' 27th home run in the first put the Red Sox up 2-0 before Texas had recorded an out in its half. Foscue answered immediately. Burger's ground-rule double cut the deficit to one.
The Rangers kept chiseling: Foscue's RBI single knotted it in the fourth, Wyatt Langford's RBI single answered a balk that briefly put Boston ahead 3-2 in the fifth, and the lineup stayed loud enough for a three-run seventh later.
Josh Jung went 3-for-5. Burger finished with two hits. Texas piled up 13 hits to Boston's three. Foscue's two hits sat in the middle of that pile - contact that kept the scoreboard from getting lonely while MacKenzie Gore worked through four innings of two hits, three walks and no strikeouts.
