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Leiter Earns First MLB Win As Rangers Down Sox 4-1
To say itās been an eventful week for Jack Leiter would probably be an understatement at this point.
On Tuesday morning, Leiter found out he would be breaking camp with the Rangers for the first time in his career.
Thursday, he spent his first Opening Day with the club but was hit on the head during batting practice by a fly ball.
On Friday, he earned his first big league win.
Leiter twearled his best game in the big leagues thus far, going five innings, allowing just one run while striking out four.
āItās good to get Jack a win,ā Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after the game. āGood stuff, good fastball tonight, he used his changeup effectively, mixed in the slider, just a great jobā.
Leiter came out and fired a 1-2-3 first inning, making a nice defensive play to lead off the game before striking out Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman to end the inning.
In the second, Leiter got two quick outs before Kristian Campbell beat out a weakly hit ball for an infield single. Connor Wong was the next batter, who drew a walk before Leiter got Ceddane Rafaela to fly out to left on a nice running play from Wyatt Langford.
During the Rangers’ half of the third, Jonah Heim poked a ball over the right field wall to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead in his first at bat of the season.
The very next inning, the Red Sox got that run back on a single from Wilyer Abreu but it was what Leiter did after that which stuck out.
With Boston still threatening with runners on the corners, Leiter got Connor Wong to bounce into a double play to strand the runners and keep the game tied.
After a 1-2-3 fifth inning, Heim would homer again, and Texas would add two more in the sixth to put Leiter in line for his first big league win.
With his two home runs, Heim became the first catcher in Rangers history to homer in his first two plate appearances of a season.
āHis [Heimās] BPās lately, he just felt like heās found something there, Bochy said. āHeās been swinging better, and he took that into the game; heās a good player, heās a good hitter, heās a good catcher, I think heās gonna have a nice year this year, a nice bounce-back yearā.
After Heim and Leiter navigated through five innings, the Rangers’ bullpen couldnāt have been much better to help Leiter secure his first MLB win.
Five Texas relievers combined to throw four scoreless innings and help the Rangers hammer down their first win of the season.
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