Stephenville native Brock Holt had the boots, was waiting for Texas Rangers cowboy hat

Brock Holt has been waiting to wear the cowboy hat.

He had even been wearing cowboy boots until the foot pain forced a transition to something more “comfy.”

The Texas Rangers veteran from Stephenville came through with a clutch, go-ahead single in the eighth inning to cap a three-run rally and 5-3 victory Sunday afternoon against the Boston Red Sox.

“Feels good, man. I didn’t know if I ever was gonna get it,” Holt said, while feeling the brim of the hat during his post-game press conference. “It fits nice, feels good. It feels natural. This is kind of a cool thing that we’re doing that guys are having fun with.”

The clutch hit, which scored David Dahl and Isiah Kiner-Falefa — the second on an error by center fielder Alex Verdugo — followed Dahl’s two-out, game-tying single that scored Nate Lowe. Lowe was in scoring position after starting the inning with a walk and stealing second. Kiner-Falefa pulled Texas to within 3-2 with a solo home run in the seventh.

All of that came after Joey Gallo and manager Chris Woodward were ejected by home plate umpire Brian O’Nora in the sixth.

Gallo was called out on strikes on a curveball he felt was inside and/or low and out of the zone. He said a few words to O’Nora before turning toward the dugout when O’Nora threw him out. The ejection came so quick Woodward hadn’t even stepped out of the dugout to defend Gallo. Woodward was also promptly ejected.

“I know it’s not easy back there especially in a day game like today with the shadows,” Woodward said of O’Nora. “Our hitters take a lot of pride in not swinging at balls. I typically don’t get too heated … but I felt he tossed Joey a little quick there. I felt like Joey didn’t say enough to warrant a quick ejection like that.”

Gallo was batting fourth in the lineup for the first time on Sunday. After striking out in the first inning, he doubled in the fourth. The Rangers hope moving Gallo from the third spot in the order will help him break out of a slow start, at least from a power standpoint. He has two homers in 28 games. Seven Rangers have as many homers or more than Gallo, who has two 40-homer seasons under his belt.

The Rangers begin a four-game series against the Twins in Minnesota at 6:40 p.m. Monday.

“Joey doesn’t stop working,” Woodward said. “He might be really close to taking off. Hopefully that [double] will give him a little bit of confidence going into Minnesota.”

The Rangers took three of the four games against the Red Sox and went 4-3 on their homestand.

“We played really good teams lately. It’s hard to win a four-game series against any team, let alone a team that is playing as well as the Red Sox have been coming in,” Woodward said. “That should give us a huge momentum boost. We have to keep it going, though.”

Woodward said it was important to have some success after being swept by the White Sox in Chicago last week and then losing two of three to the Los Angeles Angels to start the homestand. His team forced the series win against Boston by manufacturing runs when necessary.

“I wish people could see how much dedication these guys, especially Joey, put in to controlling the strike zone,” he said. “There’s a reason why we’ve been successful [lately]. We’ve put a ton of work in on the physical and mental side and we have have to keep that up. We can’t let up.”