ARLINGTON, Texas - Josh Jung kept finding the baseball.
The third baseman finished 3-for-5 without a strikeout as the Texas Rangers beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field, per ESPN's box.
His hits did not drive in a run, but they threaded a night that turned on a three-run seventh and ended with Texas (76-76) tied with Houston for first in the American League West, the Associated Press reported.
Jung singled early, stayed in the middle of rallies, and doubled in the eighth after Corey Seager reached - a three-hit line that raised his average to .298. Nicky Lopez ran for him after the double. The box does not hang the win on Jung alone; Brandon Nimmo's tiebreaking double and Ezequiel Duran's two-run single in the seventh were the swings the AP led with.
Jung's job was contact, and he delivered it for nine innings.
Boston led 2-0 in the first on Willson Contreras' 27th homer. Justin Foscue doubled on Jake Bennett's first pitch, Jung reached, and Jake Burger's ground-rule double scored Foscue to cut it to 2-1. Texas tied it in the fourth on Foscue's RBI single and took the lead for good after Nimmo and Duran broke a 3-3 game in the seventh against Erik Miller (4-1).
Pitching bridge, then Eovaldi
MacKenzie Gore lasted four innings with two hits, three runs, three walks and no strikeouts. Jakob Junis worked the fifth before a balk scored Boston's third run. Nathan Eovaldi (11-9) then threw four scoreless innings of relief - one hit, no walks, one strikeout - and retired his last 11 batters, the AP wrote.
CBS Sports' pitching lines match ESPN's box on both Gore and Eovaldi.
Bennett, Boston's rookie starter, went 4 2/3 innings and allowed eight hits and three runs with seven strikeouts. The Red Sox (82-70) have lost five of seven but still sit on the second AL wild card, five games ahead of the White Sox.
Jung's night was quieter than a home-run highlight and louder than a one-for-four footnote. Three hits in a division-race win keep a lineup moving when the big swing belongs to someone else. Texas has won four straight and reached .500 for the first time since Aug. 24.
