A Grimm night for the Rangers

Texas Rangers’ righthander Justin Grimm was a 2007 13th round draft pick of the Red Sox, he opted instead to go to the University of Georgia. His coursework did not teach him how to pitch at Fenway.

Last night, Grimm pitched 1.2 innings only retiring five of the 15 batters he faced. He allowed seven hits  and three walks and the first eight runs as the Sox punished the Rangers, 17-5.

The Sox finished with 19 hits including 13 for extra bases: eight doubles, a David Ortiz triple, and four homers, including Jackie Bradley Jr.’s first major league home run, and scored in each of the first seven innings with left fielder David Murphy holding the Sox scoreless pitching in the 8th.

The last Rangers position player to pitch at Fenway Park was Jose Canseco who allowed three runs in an inning on the mound on May 29, 1993 in a 15-1 Boston victory.

Murphy pitched the bottom of the 8th and then came up to the plate in the 9th, which means that the Rangers pitcher hit in a non-interleague AL game. He flew out, the only Rangers batter not to strike out in a 1-2-3 9th inning.

“Two touchdowns and a field goal,” was how winning pitcher Ryan Dempster, the beneficiary of the largesse, described the massacre.

Let’s look a little deeper…

The Sox had 19 hits

There have been 11 games this season in which a team has had at least 19 hits

There have been three games in which a team has scored 17 runs in a game this season all against teams from Texas.

The Sox are the first team this season with at least 13 extra-base hits.

This is just the fourth time since 1916 that the Sox have 13 extra base hits in a game.

This is the 56th time since 1916 that the Sox have scored at least 17 runs.

Nine to Know

Most recent 17-run games for Boston (with two against the Rangers)

The Sox had four players with three hits in the game.

• Stephen Drew went 4-for-5
• Daniel Nava went 3-for-4
• Mike Carp  went 3-for-4
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia went 3-for-5

There have been 25 occasions that the Sox had five or six players with at least three hits in a game.

The Texas franchise has allowed at least 17 runs 26 times.

Nine to Know

Most recent 17+ run games allowed by Texas

The most runs allowed by the Rangers in a game occurred on Sept 30, 2000 when they lost to the A’s, 23-2.