ARLINGTON, Texas - The tiebreaker belonged to Brandon Nimmo. The breathing room belonged to Ezequiel Duran.
One batter after Nimmo's double scored Corey Seager and moved Jake Burger to third in the seventh, Duran ripped a two-run single that turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-2 lead.
The Texas Rangers never trailed again in a 7-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field, the Associated Press reported, and they moved into a first-place tie with Houston in the AL West when the Astros lost 5-2 to Kansas City.
Duran finished 1-for-4 with two RBI in the CBS Sports box, a line that looks ordinary until you place it in the inning that decided September. ESPN's account matches the sequence: Nimmo first, Duran next, three Texas runs in the seventh against Erik Miller.
In a division race measured in games and percentage points, those two RBI were the difference between sharing first place and waking up still chasing.
Contact that finished the rally
Miller was Boston's third pitcher of the night. The Rangers had already clawed back from Willson Contreras' two-run homer in the first - Justin Foscue's early double and RBI single, Wyatt Langford's RBI knock in the fifth after a balk put Boston ahead 3-2. Still, the game sat on a knife edge until the seventh.
Nimmo's double created the first lead of the night for Texas. Duran's single made it a multi-run lead. One more run in the eighth stretched the final to 7-3. Texas collected 13 hits; Boston managed three. Josh Jung went 3-for-5. Burger doubled in the scoring narrative even if Duran owned the biggest RBI swing of the frame.
The Red Sox (82-70) have lost five of seven and still hold the second American League wild card by five games over the Chicago White Sox. Their three hits on Wednesday were not enough once Texas' middle of the order found the gaps in the seventh.
