ARLINGTON, Texas — Kristian Campbell’s first big league start in left field nearly got off to a memorable start.
With two men on and two outs in the bottom of the first Campbell tracked down a hard hit ball off the bat of Jake Burger and made a sensational full-extension diving grab to his left. But when he hit the ground the ball popped out of his glove and slowly rolled away, allowing both runs to score.
Obviously frustrated, Campbell made sure to make up for his near miss later.
Leading off to start the fourth inning, Campbell connected on a 1-0 fastball and drove it 431 feet to left-center into the Red Sox bullpen for his first career MLB home run. He followed with a double later and was the obvious bright spot in his team’s 4-3 loss to the Rangers.
Campbell finished 2 for 3 with a walk and the two extra-base hits, and through three games he is now 5 for 10 with a .583 on-base percentage. Following the game he said he feels like he’s settling in, and he was excited that his first home run came with his family in the stands.
“I was happy they got to see that, they haven’t seen me hit a home run probably since college,” Campbell said. “It’s been a minute.”
Outside of Campbell the Red Sox offense struggled to capitalize on its many opportunities, going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position while stranding 10 men on base. The Red Sox also got a middling effort from starting pitcher Walker Buehler in his team debut. He allowed four runs on seven hits over 4.1 innings.
“We didn’t cash in. I think the bottom part of the lineup did a good job getting on base and doing all of that stuff and the big boys, they didn’t cash in,” manager Alex Cora said. “I’m pleased with the quality of the at bats, we’re not chasing that much, we’re just getting beat in the zone and we’ve got to be on time with the fastball.”
Fresh off Friday’s four-strikeout night, Rafael Devers struck out a fifth straight time in his first at bat and found himself in another hole his next time up. With two outs and the bases loaded Devers whiffed on two straight 94 mph fastballs to fall behind 1-2, but hung in and held up on three straight balls to work the walk. He nearly pulled the trigger on the last one but held up for ball four, reaching base for the first time this season while making it a 2-1 deficit.
That also chased Rangers starter Tyler Mahle, who could not throw a strike and recorded only five outs. He finished with four walks and two hits allowed over 1.2 innings while throwing just 30 of his 61 pitches for strikes, but he was only charged with one run after reliever Jacob Webb bailed him out by forcing Alex Bregman to fly out to strand the bases loaded.
Campbell tied the score shortly afterwards but Texas quickly retook the lead when Adolis Garcia (3 for 3, three RBI) hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Then Texas started the fifth with three straight singles, including an RBI knock by Marcus Semien to make it 4-2, before chasing Buehler with one out in the inning.
“Definitely not the start in this uniform we were looking for,” Buehler said. “Disappointing, but at the end of the day we hopefully have 30 or 32 of them so not the start we wanted but hopefully will improve the next one.”
The Red Sox bullpen did a good job keeping the game within striking distance from there, but the offense couldn’t get a rally going. Justin Wilson drew an inning-ending double play, impressively turned by David Hamilton at second, to shut down the Texas rally in the fifth. Zack Kelly pitched two scoreless innings and Greg Weissert worked around a walk and a hit batsman for a scoreless eighth.
Boston got one run back in the top of the eighth on an RBI single by rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez, who also had an impressive pickoff to erase a runner in the third, but that was as close as the team got. Former Red Sox reliever Chris Martin came on for the top of the ninth and struck out Devers (0 for 4, RBI, three strikeouts), forced a Bregman flyout (2 for 4, walk) and struck out Triston Casas (1 for 5) to record the save.
With his three strikeouts Saturday Devers now has 10 through the first three games of the season, which according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale is a new MLB record.
With his big weekend Campbell is already making club history. According to the team, the rookie is the youngest Red Sox player since Devers in 2019 to have a multi extra-base hit game, and also the youngest Red Sox player with five or more hits in their first three games to start a season since Xander Bogaerts in 2014.
The only other Red Sox rookies as young or younger with five or more hits in the first three games of their career were Ryan Kalish (2010), Ted Cox (1977), Billy Conigliaro (1969), Lou Clinton (1960) and Bobby Doerr (1937).
The Red Sox (1-2) will look to salvage a four-game split in Sunday’s season finale. Richard Fitts is scheduled to face two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom and first pitch is scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET.
Refsnyder sick
During the game Cora made liberal use of his bench, but one player who was conspicuously absent was reserve outfielder Rob Refsnyder. Cora said following the game that he was under the weather and wasn’t available to play.
“He’s sick,” Cora said. “He’s in the hotel. He should be available tomorrow or Monday.”
