ARLINGTON -- The Rangers hosted TCU Night on Wednesday at Globe Life Park, and the annual promotion just happened to fall on the same night that a former Horned Frog was on the mound.
Andrew Cashner gave his fellow Frogs something to cheer about, including a bid for a no-hitter that lasted for 5 2/3 innings. That fell short, but Cashner still made it a terrific night for TCU by pitching the Rangers to an 8-2 victory over the Red Sox.
"Maybe we'll put purple hats in the stands every night," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.
Cashner wasn't bothered by an hour, 26 minute rain delay at the start of the game. He had his sinker working from the beginning and allowed just two runs in seven innings.
"It was a little different with the delay," Cashner said. "I just tried to keep busy and keep moving. It was pretty cool to pitch on TCU Night."
Cashner had no issues with his right forearm. He suffered a contusion in his last start when hit by a broken bat in Cleveland, but that didn't keep him from throwing a season-high 110 pitches.
"I didn't have a whole lot working besides my sinker," Cashner said, "but my sinker was working really well tonight. I was throwing it to both sides of the plate and it was moving a ton."
Cashner cruised through the first five innings, retiring 15 of 17 batters. The only two baserunners came on walks and there were no particularly outstanding defensive plays needed to prevent the Red Sox from getting a hit.
"Those guys are too good to even think about [the no-hitter]," Cashner said. "I was just taking it pitch by pitch and keep executing."
Cashner started the sixth by striking out Tzu-Wei Lin and getting Mookie Betts on a fly to deep center. Dustin Pedroia followed with a routine grounder to shortstop Jurickson Profar for what should have completed a 1-2-3 inning. But first baseman Pete Kozma, who had just taken over for Joey Gallo, dropped the throw to prolong the inning.

Xander Bogaerts followed with a two-run home run to left to break up the no-hit bid. Cashner ended up allowing three hits through seven innings before Matt Bush and Alex Claudio finished it off for the Rangers. The Red Sox had scored seven or more runs in five straight games before Wednesday.
"We hit some balls hard, we hit some balls right at people," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "But make no mistake, Cashner -- that was one of the better games that I think he's thrown this year. We've come off a good run here where we've been swinging the bat well, scoring a high number of runs, and we ran into a pitcher that threw the ball well tonight."