Texas Rangers lose at home on Opening Day, 5-2, to the Boston Red Sox
The Texas Rangers fell 5-2 to the Boston Red Sox on Opening Day despite a solid pitching performance from Nathan Eovaldi, who tied a franchise record.
Texas opens the 2025 season with lofty expectations after failing to make the playoffs as the reigning World Series champs in the 2024 season, due to injuries and less-than-stellar performances from star players.
Here are some of the notable occurrences from the Rangers’ Opening Day game.
THUMBS UP: Nathan Eovaldi was in midseason form for the Rangers, giving up two runs on three hits in six innings of work with nine strikeouts.
Despite his strong stat line, Eovaldi said he let the team down by not maintaining the leads he was given.
“It’s just frustrating,” said Eovaldi, “We scored twice first, and the very next inning I gave it up. Frustrating. You know what I mean? I feel like the biggest inning in baseball is the shutdown inning, get the boys back in the dugout, and keep it rolling. But you know, I felt really good today. I felt like I had good command of the fastball and I had a really good feel for my curveball.”
Missing two of their starting pitchers, in Cody Bradford and Jon Gray, heading into the season, the Rangers need Eovaldi to be at the top of his game, and the Alvin, Texas native complied, tying the franchise record for strikeouts on Opening Day.
THUMBS DOWN: Rangers fans gave a “warm welcome” to former Astro Alex Bregman, booing him profusely, before he played in his first game for the Red Sox.
Bregman didn’t give fans anything to boo during the game, going hitless with a strikeout in four at-bats.
THUMBS UP: Josh Smith will be presented with his 2024 Silver Slugger Award prior to Friday’s game against the Red Sox. Smith is the first Ranger and only the third player in MLB history to win a Silver Slugger as utility player.
Smith started for the Rangers at shortstop on Thursday and went 0-for-3.
THUMBS DOWN: The Rangers’ offense is looking to rebound after a tough 2024 season and struggled to capitalize on opportunities in the game, going 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position
After the game, manager Bruce Bochy said the team had good at-bats despite the lack of production.
“We had some pretty good at-bats there. First couple innings, ran his pitch count up pretty good. I thought he showed some discipline, and we fought some tough pitches off and he’s good. He kept going, and we gave him some lanes there. But overall, the bats were pretty good. I thought we just couldn’t cash in,” said Bochy.
THUMBS UP: New arrivals Jake Burger and Kevin Pillar made an immediate impact for the Rangers with Pillar getting the first RBI of the season for Texas, and Burger scoring the first run.
Pillar, who thought about retirement during the offseason, explained how Opening Day felt in his 13th MLB season.
“I think this is my 11th opening day,” said Pillar, “The feelings the same, there’s nothing like it, the excitement, kind of the unknown of what’s gonna happen. But I feel like today was just about knowing I’ve knocked down it so many times before, just trying to control my emotions... playing for my hometown team now and having a lot of people here to support me,” said Pillar.
Additionally, in the bottom of the fourth, the second run of the game was scored by Pillar, off a double by catcher Kyle Higashioka, continuing the trend of new arrivals coming up big. Three of the Rangers’ first four hits came from offseason additions.
In the game, Burger went 0-for-3 with a walk and a run scored, Pillar was 2-for-3 with a run and RBI, while Higashioka went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
THUMBS DOWN: Much has been made about the Rangers’ bullpen and the need for improvements this season, and the team brought in a bevy of new arms to help.
On Thursday, the bullpen gave up three runs on three hits with three walks and a home run in three innings of work.
Robert Garcia was the first pitcher to be used out of the bullpen, followed by Chris Martin, Luke Jackson and Shawn Armstrong.
Martin, an Arlington native, shined coming in and stranding two runners left on base in the seventh inning before throwing a scoreless eighth inning.
Jackson gave up the first run of the season for the bullpen off a three-run homer in the top of the ninth, but only after a hard hit ball got past third baseman Josh Jung to set the Red Sox up with men on the corners.
“He was just missing, wasn’t missing by much there, the 3-2 pitch, I think was pretty close. I didn’t see it, but, like I said, he got the ground ball, but we were looking for,” said Bochy, “That doesn’t happen for a base hit, then we had some options there where we can maybe make a different move there. But, he’s got great stuff, I think, good fastball, a good breaking ball. They just got to him tonight.”
The Rangers will be back in action against the Red Sox at 7:05 p.m. Friday, at Globe Life Field in Jack Leiter’s 2025 regular-season debut.
This story was originally published March 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM.
