Bottom of the order, 'pen lead way in gritty, hard-fought win

ARLINGTON -- Led by the bottom of the batting order and backed by their bullpen, the Rangers found a way out of their recent inertia Saturday night. As satisfying as it was to snap a three-game losing streak with a 7-4 victory over the Red Sox at Globe Life Field, the gritty manner in which the Rangers pieced together the win seemed to matter just as much to manager Bruce Bochy.

¡°A really hard-fought game,¡± Bochy said after the Rangers rallied from an early deficit, thanks to back-to-back home runs by Jonah Heim and Leody Taveras and a resilient performance from five Rangers relievers.

¡°A good effort by everybody,¡± Bochy said. ¡°All of them did something to pick each other up. That¡¯s what it¡¯s all about. It was a really well-played game for us to come back like that, to get the big hits and get the clutch pitching that we got.¡±

Heim¡¯s game-tying three-run homer in the fourth was undoubtedly the biggest hit. Heim doesn¡¯t get many days off for a catcher, but Bochy left him out of the lineup Friday night after a Thursday off-day. Heim said the break helped ¡°rest the body, but also rest the mind.¡± He acknowledged he was ¡°overthinking¡± at the plate lately, having hit just .143 (6-for-42) in his previous 12 games.

¡°Thinking about mechanics too much, trying to have a perfect swing every time instead of just going out there and competing,¡± Heim said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be here if the swing wasn¡¯t good enough, so you¡¯ve just got to remember that sometimes and just go out and trust your approach and play the game.¡±

Heim helped the Rangers rally after their starter, lefty Cody Bradford, didn¡¯t make it out of the top of the fourth inning. They grabbed the lead back in the bottom half when Heim and Taveras went yard. The bottom three hitters in the Texas order -- Ezequiel Duran, Heim and Taveras -- each had two hits and drove in six of the Rangers¡¯ seven runs.

¡°That¡¯s an area where we haven't quite had the production [recently] that we had last year, or for the most part this year, and we got it tonight,¡± Bochy said. ¡°That¡¯s what it¡¯s about, everybody doing something to contribute. Really, throughout the order, somebody did something to help us win that game.¡±

Likewise for the bullpen, which preserved the lead despite having to record the game¡¯s final 16 outs. The combo of Jos¨¦ Leclerc, Andrew Chafin, Josh Sborz, David Robertson and Kirby Yates posted 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball despite allowing seven total hits and two walks. They dissolved almost all the traffic they allowed to reach base.

¡°All of them did a great job of saving us with runners on base,¡± Bochy said. ¡°I normally don¡¯t use my relievers that much, but we¡¯re in a tough situation with the bullpen right now. They were all good to go early in the game, we gave them a heads-up that we may use them earlier than normal. They were ready.¡±

The bullpen was ready in the fourth, and so were Heim and Taveras. They each slugged balls a Statcast-projected 368 feet to right field, although Heim¡¯s towering homer, with its 36-degree launch angle, soared longer than Taveras¡¯ 25-degree line drive. Heim hit the first pitch he saw from Boston starter Tanner Houck, a splitter down the middle, for a three-run, game-tying homer. Taveras followed with a go-ahead homer two pitches later.

Taveras also had an RBI infield single in the sixth, when the Rangers scored three more runs to give the bullpen a more comfortable margin.

¡°The bullpen did a phenomenal job, they came in and closed the door,¡± said Bradford, who made his first start since spending 108 days on the injured list with a stress fracture in his lower back. ¡°Maybe it was unrealistic, but I was trying to go five innings tonight. I didn¡¯t quite get there and hit that fourth-inning wall.¡±

But the bullpen and the bottom of the order helped the Rangers get over that wall anyway.

¡°It was great for team morale,¡± Bradford said.