BOSTON — Dustin Pedroia had three of Boston’s eight doubles, Aaron Cook pitched seven solid innings and the Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers 9-2 on Monday night.
Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford each doubled twice and Adrian Gonzalez once as the Red Sox increased their major league high to 248 doubles, 35 more than the second-place New York Mets. And Crawford and Gonzalez drove in three runs each.
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Cook (3-5) regained control of his sinker after going 0-4 in his previous five starts. Of his 21 outs, 15 came on groundballs. He allowed six hits, walked two and struck out one.
Yu Darvish (11-8) also has struggled and fell to 1-4 in his last five starts. On Monday, in the rookie’s first start against the Red Sox, he threw 123 pitches and allowed 11 hits, both career highs.
He gave up at least six runs for the fourth time in five games, a stretch in which his ERA is 7.76. That’s a sharp drop from the 3.59 ERA he had at the All-Star break when he was a member of the AL team.
The strong game by the Red Sox — both hitting and pitching — came on a night in which owner John Henry issued a statement in support of first-year manager Bobby Valentine.
In an email to reporters, Henry said that management is not making a managerial change, and he cited numerous injuries as one reason for the team’s struggles. He also said it is “simply wrong” to blame Valentine for the team’s troubles, and “we all” share responsibility.
The Red Sox have hovered around .500 most of the season and have never been in first or second place in the AL East.
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead in the second on a double by Nelson Cruz and an RBI single by David Murphy. But they managed just two hits in Cook’s remaining five innings while the Red Sox were taking a 5-1 lead. Texas was hitless in four straight innings before Adrian Beltre started the ninth with his 19th homer of the year.
Boston went ahead 2-1 in the third on doubles by Ellsbury, Crawford and Gonzalez.
Two more doubles in the fourth contributed to a three-run inning and a 5-1 lead. A one-out walk to Ryan Kalish and a single by Mike Aviles put runners at first and third. Ellsbury then doubled in one run, Crawford hit a sacrifice fly and Pedroia capped the rally with a run-scoring double.
The Red Sox scored their sixth run in the seventh when Pedroia led off with his third double and scored on Gonzalez’s single.
And they added three in the eighth with the runs coming in on a double by Crawford, a single by Gonzalez and a sacrifice fly by Cody Ross.
NOTES: Michael Young started at shortstop for Texas in place of Elvis Andrus, who left Sunday’s 7-6 loss to Kansas City in the ninth inning with a sore right shoulder. Manager Ron Washington said he expects Andrus to play Tuesday night. … The first five batters in Boston’s lineup went 12 for 22 with eight doubles, six runs and nine RBIs. … Ryan Dempster (5-5) makes his second start for Texas on Tuesday since being acquired the previous Tuesday from the Chicago Cubs. Jon Lester (5-9) goes for Boston. … Gonzalez reached base at least twice for the eighth time in 10 games. … Of his last 13 hitters, Cook retired 11 and walked two.
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