Sports
Boesch Belts Two Homers in 13-7 Win over Texas
Former PPBA star has the best game of his major league career with five hits and five RBIs.
Not since his childhood days in the Palisades Pony Baseball Association has enjoyed as productive a game at the plate as the one he had Monday against the Texas Rangers.
The Detroit right fielder went five-for-six with two home runs, five runs batted in and three runs scored in the Tigers' 13-7 victory at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. It was the best game of his major league career and propelled the Tigers to their seventh win in eight games.
"I've been swinging the bat well. You just keep grinding and you know that eventually balls are going to find seats and find holes," Boesch told The Associated Press. "It's hard to be easy on yourself when you have expectations. It's something I'll probably fight for the rest of my career. It's a daily thing where you remind yourself that this game isn't easy, but you also expect to do your job and perform."
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Boesch had been in a slump, batting .196 with only seven extra-base hits in his previous 28 games, before belting a three-run homer off Texas starter Colby Lewis to give Detroit a 3-0 lead in the first inning. He led off the third inning with a two-run blast off Lewis for his seventh homer of the season.
However, the 26-year-old lefty did not stop there. He singled and scored in the fourth inning, hit an RBI double in the sixth and singled in the ninth, raising his season batting average to .278 with 55 hits, 32 RBIs and 38 runs in 54 games.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It was the first career multi-homer game of Boesch's major league career, which began last season when he was called up from Triple-A Toledo on April 23 to replace three-time All-Star Carlos Guillen, who had suffered a hamstring injury.
Boesch played in 133 games as a rookie with 119 hits, 14 homers, 49 runs scored and 67 RBIs.
Though he was born in Santa Monica, Boesch grew up near and was a local standout in AYSO and the PPBA. He was an All-CIF first-teamer at Harvard-Westlake High in North Hollywood, where he hit .490 his senior year.
Boesch went on to play at UC Berkeley, making the All-Pacific-10 first team as a sophomore and earning honorable mention as a junior in 2006 when he had 10 home runs, 42 RBIs and 35 runs scored.
