ARLINGTON, Texas - The American League West race finally looked the Rangers in the eye again.
Brandon Nimmo delivered the swing that made the scoreboard match the standings. His tiebreaking double in the seventh inning scored Corey Seager and sent Jake Burger to third, and Ezequiel Duran followed with a two-run single as Texas beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field.
The Associated Press framed Nimmo's drive as the decisive crack in a game that had been stuck at 3-2 after a balk handed Boston a brief lead.
Texas improved to 76-76 with its fourth straight win, reaching .500 for the first time since Aug. 24. When the Astros lost 5-2 to Kansas City at home, the Rangers moved into a first-place tie in the division with 10 games left - though Houston still owns the head-to-head tiebreaker, the AP noted.
The seventh that flipped the race
Erik Miller, the third of four Red Sox pitchers, worked the seventh when Texas scored three times. Nimmo's double broke the deadlock. Duran's single through the middle plated Nimmo and Burger and turned a one-run deficit into a two-run cushion before an eighth-inning run padded the final.
Nimmo finished 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI in the CBS Sports box score that matches the AP account. It was not a multi-hit night; it was the hit that mattered in September math. Burger had already doubled earlier and Jung collected three hits as the Rangers piled up 13 hits overall against Jake Bennett and the Boston bullpen.
