First pitch: Thursday, 8:05 p.m. ET
Line: Texas -115, Boston +105, Total: 9

The Texas Rangers look to push their record to .500 when they host the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night.

It has not been the season that Boston was looking to have after making big offensive changes through free agency and coming into this series it is 4-8 since May 15th. Their woes continued when they went to Minnesota to start the week, getting swept by the Twins in three games and being outscored 15-7. On Wednesday, they lost the final game of the set by a score of 6-4 as the 4-7 hitters in the lineup combined to go hitless in their 15 at-bats. The only offense they got came off the bat of 2B Dustin Pedroia (.290) who hit a couple of two-run homers and is currently riding a seven-game hitting streak in which he is 11-for-28 (.393) with six RBI. The Rangers on the other hand have been red hot, winning seven of their past eight games and took series wins against this Red Sox group, the Yankees and Cleveland on the road. They failed to get their second consecutive sweep when they took a rough 12-3 loss against the Indians on Wednesday, but were due for a dud of an offensive performance after averaging 8.8 runs per game in their last five contests. They couldn’t overcome a very poor effort (2.2 IP, 9 ER, 11 H, 2 K) by starter Colby Lewis as the offense was just 1-for-5 with RISP. DH Prince Fielder (.368) is the hottest hitter in the game right now and is riding a six-game hitting streak in which he is an amazing 15-for-28 (.536) with three doubles, five home runs, 15 RBI and nine runs. Making his MLB debut for Boston in this game will be 22-year-old LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) as he faces RHP Nick Martinez (4-0, 1.96 ERA) for the host Texas group. The last time these two clubs met was just earlier this month at Fenway when the Rangers took 2-of-3 contests and held the Sox to a meager six runs in the series. Overall since 2013, Texas holds an 8-7 edge against their opponent and is 4-2 in Arlington during that stretch. Some interesting trends to keep an eye on include that Boston is 18-8 (.692) in road games after having lost five or six of its past seven games since the start of last year while being 47-62 (.431) when the money line is +125 to -125 in the same timeframe. Both Cs Ryan Hanigan (Hand) and Christian Vasquez (Elbow) remain out along with OF Shane Victorino (Calf) for the visiting Red Sox as 2B Jurickson Profar (Shoulder) and 1B Kyle Blanks (Tailbone) are out for the Rangers.

Rodriguez just turned 22 in April, but he has been dominating in the Red Sox farm system with a 2.98 ERA and 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings in eight triple-A starts. Since coming over to Boston from Baltimore last season, the young lefty has been tremendous and on top of striking out a ton of batters has been able to keep his control to a solid 1.3 BB/9 in the 48.1 innings on the mound. Surprisingly with all those great stats, batters have hit .321 BABIP against him as he’s kept a mere 61.8% of runners on base, suggesting that he should have had even better numbers than he put up this season. With this being his MLB debut, Rodriguez has never faced any of these players and need to not only watch out for the hot-hitting DH Prince Fielder, but also 1B Mitch Moreland (.304) who is riding an 11-game hitting streak in which he is 14-for-41 (.341) with four HRs and nine RBI. On the other hand, OF Leonys Martin (.215) has done little at the dish and is hitting a meager .157 in 54 May at-bats. The Red Sox bullpen has gone 7-5 with a 3.47 ERA (1.33 WHIP) and has successfully saved 10-of-16 games. Koji Uehara (1.80 ERA, 10 saves) has just one of those blown saves and sports an 18:4 K/BB ratio with seven hits allowed in his 15 innings of work.

Martinez has been an absolute rock for the Rangers this year as his team has won in eight of his nine starts. He has been able to go six innings in seven of those outings and has yet to allow more than three runs in any of them. What is even more amazing is that he is doing all of this while striking out a mere 4.9 batters per nine innings. It is not too much of a surprise as the 24-year-old mowed down the same amount over 140.1 innings last year, but it is odd after he was striking out 8.4 batters per nine at double-A before being called up. His control has been strong (2.8 BB/9) and he has benefited from batters hitting a poor .266 BABIP. He hasn’t faced the Sox in his young career and will have to work carefully when going against OF Hanley Ramirez (.252) who leads the team with 10 homers but has just one RBI in his last 88 plate appearances. Martinez may not have too much trouble when facing C Blake Swihart (.200) though as he already has 18 strikeouts in his first 60 at-bats. The relievers for Texas have not been too impressive, going 8-6 with a 4.26 ERA (1.34 WHIP) and are just 12-for-20 in save chances. Shawn Tolleson (2.82 ERA, 5 saves) has been the closer for them lately and is a perfect 5-for-5 in his first five save attempts with just two hits allowed and a 6:1 K/BB ratio in that time.