Texas @ Boston preview
Fenway Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 21, 2021 ) Texas 10, Boston 1
The Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers will have to contend with the weather before doing battle on the field to determine a winner in the finale of their three-game weekend series on Sunday at Fenway Park.
With hurricane warnings issued ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Henri -- which is projected to make landfall in the New England area on Sunday -- there is a significant chance that the scheduled matinee will be postponed.
"As of now, I'm not sure (if we'll play). I don't know where we're at, but obviously the chances are very slim," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Saturday about the prospects of getting Sunday's game in on time.
Both the Rangers and Red Sox have a mutual off-day on Monday as a possible make-up date.
If the teams do play Sunday, the Rangers will be looking to maintain their momentum after knotting the series with a 10-1 rout of the Red Sox on Saturday. Boston had opened the series with a 6-0 victory the day before.
"That was one of our better games on all sides of the ball," Texas manager Chris Woodward said. "I thought from the at-bat quality, it was way better. You could see the grind; you could see the fight."
Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (10-8, 3.91 ERA) is set to take the mound opposite Rangers left-hander Kolby Allard (3-10, 4.88 ERA) in the finale.
Eovaldi aims to bounce back from a hard-luck loss versus his former team in a 2-0 defeat at the New York Yankees last Tuesday.
The veteran right-hander permitted only two runs over five innings while allowing seven hits, walking one and striking out six. The loss was his third in four starts, and Eovaldi has won just once in his last seven starts.
Eovaldi has faced the Rangers once already this season, tossing six innings of one-run ball in a 6-1 victory on April 30 in Arlington, Texas. He allowed four hits and a pair of walks while striking out five.
Overall, Eovaldi is 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA in three career starts against Texas. Former Red Sox utility man Brock Holt has five of the current Rangers' batters seven hits against Eovaldi, going 5-for-14 with three RBIs against him.
Allard looks to build on his last start last Sunday against Oakland when he snapped a 10-start winless spell dating back to June 12.
The 24-year-old southpaw tossed a season-high 6 1/3 innings while allowing three runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts in a 7-4 win over the Athletics.
Despite going winless in two prior starts, Allard has shown exceptional control in his recent outings. Allard has not walked a batter in a span of 18 1/3 innings over his last three starts while pitching to a 3.44 ERA.
Allard has faced the Red Sox only once before in his career in 2019. The then-second-year hurler surrendered five runs on six hits with a walk and one strikeout in a three-inning outing. Boston catcher Christian Vazquez went 1-for-2 with a tiebreaking two-run home run against Allard in the contest.
--Field Level Media