July 4, 2016: Red Sox bang out 21 hits on the Fourth of July

There were a lot of hits at Fenway Park as the Boston Red Sox opened July 2016. On July 1, the Red Sox returned from the road and out-hit the visiting Los Angeles Angels, 16-12, winning the game, 5-4. The next day the Angels got their revenge, pounding out 22 hits to just eight for the Red Sox and crushing them, 21-2. On July 3, Boston had 16 hits and won, 10-5.1

On Monday, the Fourth of July, the Texas Rangers began a series in Boston, having just played back-to back day games in Minnesota, which they lost, 17-5 and 5-4. They flew in Sunday night, then faced another early game, scheduled for what was 12:35 PM Central time.

That didn’t prevent them from jumping out to a solid start. The Rangers banged out five hits in the first inning and put up a “4” on the scoreboard before the Red Sox even got to bat. But Boston overcame that early deficit with a hitting barrage of its own and rolled to a 12-5 win.

The Rangers were first in the American League West Division, 8½ games ahead of the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners (tied for second place) and a full 18½ games ahead of the last-place Angels. The Red Sox were second in the AL East Division, three games behind the Baltimore Orioles.

Starting for manager John Farrell’s Red Sox was 27-year-old right-hander Rick Porcello, who was 9-2 with a 3.78 ERA. Farrell was in his fourth season managing Boston; in his first year – 2013 – the team had won the World Series. There followed two years with losing records (71-91 and 78-84). Porcello had been 9-15 (4.92) in 28 starts in 2015, his first year with the Red Sox.

Jeff Banister managed the Rangers, in his second year as skipper. The Rangers had finished first in the division in 2015 but lost the AL Division Series to the Toronto Blue Jays in five games. Banister’s starter was Nick Martinez, who had made three starts after returning from Triple A in June. His ERA coming into this game was an even 5.00. The Rangers had three pitchers on the disabled list, so Martinez was given another start.2  

In this game’s first inning, it was all singles for the visitors – a one-out single to right field by Ian Desmond; a two-out single to center by former Red Sox third baseman Adrian Beltré, which drove in Desmond from second base; a Prince Fielder single that resulted in runners on second and third; a two-RBI single to right by Rougned Odor (who ended up on second on a throwing error); and then a ground single up the middle by Jurickson Profar, on which Odor scored. 4-0, Rangers.

Boston answered with a two-out run in its half of the first. Mookie Betts singled to lead off but was erased on a double play. Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield single and went to third on David Ortiz’s ground-rule double to right. A walk to Hanley Ramírez loaded the bases and another walk to Jackie Bradley Jr. forced in a run, but left fielder Brock Holt grounded out to first base.

Each team had just one hit in the second inning, though what looked like a possible two-run homer by Mookie Betts was judged to be foul when replay upheld the third-base umpire’s call.

The Rangers were unable to score in the third, but the Red Sox went ahead to stay in their half. Bogaerts reached on a single over third base. Ortiz doubled off the base of the scoreboard in left and drove him home. Ramírez doubled off the wall in left-center and drove Ortiz home. Bradley popped up to short, but Holt homered to right-center, the ball bouncing off the Boston bullpen fence and then in. Per the Boston Globe, Red Sox relief pitcher Robbie Ross “popped off the bench and deftly caught the ball in his hat before it hit the ground.”3 Boston had a 5-4 lead.

With two outs, Sandy León hit a ground-rule double which bounced off the center-field wall and then into the bullpen, but he advanced no further.

The Rangers came close to tying it up in the fourth. Shin-Soo Choo doubled to left with two outs, but when Desmond singled to left, Holt’s throw to the plate erased Choo.  

After Travis Shaw doubled to right-center in Boston’s fifth, lefty Michael Roth relieved Martinez. It was Roth’s Rangers debut; the former Angel had been called up from Triple A a day earlier. After a groundout and a walk, Dustin Pedroia singled to left and gave Boston a two-run lead.

In the sixth, the Red Sox added two more runs. After Ortiz flied out to deep center, Hanley Ramírez doubled high off the left-field wall, then scored when Bradley hit a ground-rule double that bounced high and into the seats alongside left field. Bradley moved to third on Holt’s 4-3 groundout, then scored when Shaw singled to center. Boston now led, 8-4.

The Rangers had one hit in the fifth, one in the sixth, and – after Matt Barnes took over from Porcello – one in the seventh, but no runs. The Red Sox made it 9-4 in the seventh on a solo home run into the front row of the Green Monster seats by Pedroia, his eighth. Roth then got Bogaerts to ground out, 5-3, and got swinging strikeouts from Ortiz and Ramírez.4

Koji Uehara relieved Barnes and Odor hit a solo home run, his 16th of the season, to lead off the Rangers’ eighth. After a one-out double by Elvis Andrus, Farrell had Ross take over from Uehara. Ross got the final two outs.

The Red Sox added three more runs in the eighth. With two outs, Travis Shaw homered high off the Pesky Pole in right field, his ninth of the season. Sandy León doubled into the left-field corner, his third double of the game and the ninth for Boston batters.5 Mookie Betts hit his 18th homer high over the Green Monster. “This ballpark played extremely small today,” Farrell said after the game.6 

Pedroia singled to center for Boston’s 21st hit, a franchise record for an Independence Day game.7 Sandy León led with four hits; Pedroia, Bogaerts, and Shaw each had three.

With a 12-5 lead, it was left to Ross to close things out.  He struck out Desmond, got a groundout, and then saw Beltré get the 16th hit for the Rangers, a double to left. The game was brought to conclusion when Prince Fielder flied out to left.

“We were putting pressure on them the whole game,” Betts said. “That’s how you just wear down a pitcher and start getting some hits. I mean we were having some long at-bats and hitting them hard and keeping him in the stretch. I thought that’s how we won today.”8

The Rangers still had the most wins (52) in the American League. Banister said, “This is still a highly confident ballclub. Last I checked we were in a pretty good spot. We just need to continue to find a way to put some runs on the board. We’ve got a solid group of players who are going to give a great effort and play hard.”9

The loss was borne by Martinez. Porcello got the win, improving to 10-2 and on his way to a 22-4 season. His 22 wins led the league. His 5.91 strikeouts-to-walks ratio led both leagues. After the season, Porcello was named the winner of the AL Cy Young Award. The 12 hits he surrendered in this game were three more than any other start all year long.

The Rangers won on Tuesday evening 7-2, both teams collecting 11 hits. On Wednesday, both teams had 10 hits, but the Red Sox prevailed, 11-6.

Both teams finished the season first in their divisions. The Rangers won the AL West, nine games ahead of the second-place Seattle Mariners, but were swept by the Blue Jays in the ALDS. The Red Sox finished three games ahead of the Orioles but were also swept in the ALDS by the Cleveland Indians.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas E. Merrick and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Sandy León, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and video of the game on YouTube.com. Thanks to Jason Scheller for supplying coverage from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201607040.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2016/B07040BOS2016.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlBwQPDkaZ4

Notes

1 The 2016 Red Sox led the American League in hits, runs, doubles, RBIs, batting average, slugging average, OPS, OBP, and total bases.

2 Ken Powtak, Associated Press, “Rangers slide as pitching struggles,” Wichita Falls (Texas) Times Record News, July 5, 2016: D1. Starters Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, and Colby Lewis were all out with injuries.

3 Peter Abraham, “Holt starts hit parade,” Boston Globe, July 5, 2016: C1.

4 It was the 23rd and final appearance of Roth’s three-season major-league career.

5 The Red Sox team record for doubles in one game was 12, set on July 29, 1990, in Detroit.

6 Bill Ballou, “Boston Pops,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram Gazette, July 5, 2016: B1, B2.

7 The Red Sox had 20 hits in a 17-7 win over Philadelphia Athletics in the first game of a July 4, 1939, doubleheader at Shibe Park. Nine years later, on Independence Day 1948, Boston racked up another 20 hits in beating the Athletics, 19-5, at Fenway Park. Though 21 hits in one game is a lot, the franchise record is 28, set on June 27, 2003 when the Red Sox scored 14 runs in the first inning, 10 before the first out. And the 12 runs scored is far from the most ever – and not even the most in 2016. On both August 14 and September 2, the Red Sox scored 16 runs.

8 Matt Kalman, “Sox celebrate 4th,” Boston Herald, July 5, 2016: 46.

9 Stefan Stevenson, “Rangers’ Fourth opens with a bang, then fizzles out,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 4, 2016, https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/mlb/texas-rangers/article87626567.html