The Boston Red Sox Monday, May 3, 2021 * The Boston Globe Brock Holt hits back at Red Sox, who squander a strong Garrett Richards start in loss to Rangers Peter Abraham ARLINGTON, Texas — Brock Holt said Thursday that he’d always root for the Red Sox, except when he was playing against them. The seven seasons he spent in Boston were the most memorable of his career. Holt had two hits against the Sox on Friday and at one point danced down the third base line like he intended to steal home, grinning the entire time. Then Sunday, Holt stuck a dagger in his former team. His two-out single off Matt Barnes in the bottom of the eighth inning led to two runs as the Rangers came back to beat the Red Sox, 5-3. “Obviously, the Red Sox thing, it’s cool. But it would have felt good regardless of who it was,” said Holt, who wore a Texas flag-themed cowboy hat to his postgame press conference. It went well with his handlebar mustache. Holt had short stints with the Brewers and Nationals after the Red Sox let him walk as a free agent following the 2019 season. The Rangers signed him to a minor league contract before this season and Holt has become the lefthanded side of a platoon at third base. The hit Sunday was his biggest of the season. It left the Red Sox stunned. “It stung, it stung. Especially coming from him,” Xander Bogaerts said. “He’s a good player, man. I know definitely he wanted that at-bat and to be clutch in that situation.” The Sox had a 3-2 lead going into the eighth inning with Adam Ottavino on the mound, the situation manager Alex Cora wanted. But Ottavino walked lefthanded-hitting Nate Lowe on five pitches to start the inning, missing badly four times. “The leadoff walk, that’s the game,” Ottavino said. “A leadoff walk and your margin for error shrinks.” Lowe then took a walking lead and easily stole second. Now the tying run was in scoring position. “I was surprised that he stole being that he’s not really a speed guy,” Ottavino said. “It didn’t really bother me.” Ottavino has been easy to steal on in his career, something the Red Sox have worked with him to clean up. “That’s something, we have to get better. We have to help him out,” Cora said. Ottavino retired the next two batters and had a chance to end the inning before another lefty hitter, David Dahl, singled to left field to drive in the tying run. The meltdown continued when Isiah Kiner-Falefa walked on five pitches. Barnes was then called in from the bullpen. Barnes struck Holt out on three pitches when he faced him for the first time last season. This time Holt lined a high fastball to center. “He’s a championship-caliber player,” Cora said. “He’s done it before. He put a good swing on a fastball up and he found green.” Dahl scored, as did Kiner-Falefa after center fielder Alex Verdugo overran the ball. Rangers closer Ian Kennedy needed only five pitches in the ninth to dispose of the Red Sox. The last seven hitters went in order against the Texas bullpen. Red Sox starter Garrett Richards allowed one run on four hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out seven. Richards left the game with a 2-1 lead the bullpen didn’t hold. Darwinzon Hernandez worked a scoreless sixth inning. With a 3-1 lead, the Sox turned to Garrett Whitlock. The rookie allowed his first run of the season, a leadoff home run by Kiner-Falefa, before getting through the inning. Bogaerts (3 for 4) scored the first two runs for the Sox. He singled in the second inning off Mike Foltynewicz, reaching on a popup the Texas infield lost in the sun. Bogaerts took third on a double by Marwin Gonzalez and scored on a groundout by Hunter Renfroe. Bogaerts led off the fifth inning with a solo homer to center, his fifth of the season. The Sox manufactured a run in the seventh inning. Renfroe singled and took second on a sacrifice bunt by slumping Franchy Cordero. Kevin Plawecki’s groundout moved Renfroe to third ahead of a single by another slumping hitter, Kiké Hernández. The bullpen was set up to send the Sox home with a series split but Holt was standing in the way as Texas took 3 of 4 in the series. The 17-12 Sox, who return to Fenway Park for a three-game homestand against the Detroit Tigers beginning Tuesday, are 8-9 after a nine-game win streak that energized their season. “We’re still a good team,” Cora said. “Nothing has changed. Like I told you guys when we started 0-3, we felt we had a good team. And after we won all those games, we still have a good team.” Another strong start, but this time Garrett Richards and Red Sox come up short vs. Rangers Peter Abraham ARLINGTON, Texas — Garrett Richards pitched well again for the Red Sox on Sunday. But the righthander would have preferred to stay in the game for longer than what he called a “five and dive.” The Texas Rangers worked long at-bats and Richards came out after 93 pitches over five innings. What was a 2-1 lead turned into a 5-3 loss for the Sox. After a worrisome first four starts, Richards has allowed two runs over 12 innings in his last two and struck out 17 with only one walk. His earned run average has dropped from 6.48 to 4.40. “We’re moving in the right direction. There’s still work to be done,” Richards said. Richards adjusted his mechanics, both from the windup and out of the stretch, two starts ago, staying more upright and improving his forward momentum. His release point has been more consistent as a result and his slider much sharper. “My mind has just gone into a different mode as far as my mechanics go,” Richards said. “This new delivery that me and [pitching coach Dave Bush] have come up with has really gotten me back in the zone. I’m throwing a ton of strikes now.” Swing and a miss Through Saturday, major league players had struck out in 24.3 percent of their plate appearances this season, up from 23.4 percent in 2020 and 22.9 percent in 2019. Strikeouts rates have climbed for eight consecutive years, a combination of advances in pitching and an increasing number of hitters taking an all-or-nothing approach. Manager Alex Cora has worked on making the Sox more of a contact-hitting team. That they are fourth in the majors with a .324 on-base percentage suggests it’s working. “As a baseball fan, it’s not fun,” Cora said. “You sit there, and you see walks and strikeouts and there’s no action, not too many balls put in play.” Cora talked to J.D. Martinez a few days ago about how much the game has changed, particularly the quality of the pitching. “The stuff they see on a daily basis is a lot better than the stuff we saw while I was playing,” Cora said. “The years that I played I never saw anything like this. “There’s no 87-88 [miles per hour] anymore. The last guy on a staff either has a nasty secondary pitch or a plus fastball. The ball is doing stuff that I’ve never seen before . it’s a grind for hitters.” Cora believes the root of the problem is with youth baseball and showcase events that reward players who hit home runs and throw as hard as they can at the expense of learning situational hitting or changing speeds as a pitcher. “The game within the game is not played any more. It’s not,” Cora said. “I think we have to do a better job as an industry to promote contact and line drives.” Brave new world The four-game series at Globe Life Park drew 116,216 fans, including crowds of 35,129 on Saturday and 29,190 on Sunday. “Good for them that they can do it,” Cora said. “The fans were into it.” The retractable roof of the ballpark was closed for the first three games and while fans were encouraged to wear masks, only a small percentage did. The state government in Texas lifted its COVID-19 restrictions in March. “I hope they’re doing it right. I guess that’s the way you have to put it,” Cora said. “It’s just different here. If they feel that they’re OK doing it this way, good for them. “Hopefully everybody can do it whenever the states and the people that know more about this virus and pandemic decide we can do that. That would be great.” The Sox will move up to 25 percent of capacity at Fenway Park for their homestand starting May 11. Good company Xander Bogaerts’s home run in the fourth inning was his 118th as a shortstop. In team history, only Nomar Garciaparra (177) and Rico Petrocelli (127) have more . Franchy Cordero was 0 for 4 with a sacrifice. The left fielder is hitless in his last 24 at-bats and is 1 for 35 with 18 strikeouts in his last 13 games. He has a .406 OPS . After going 5 for 8 with two home runs, four walks and five RBIs in the first two games of the series, Martinez struck out twice and twice grounded into double plays with a runner on third .