Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim (28) celebrates his second home run of the game with teammates during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Friday in Arlington. (ElÃas Valverde II/Dallas Morning News)

ARLINGTON — Much of Jack Leiter’s first turn through the major leagues had been a proverbial comebacker to the crotch.

Funny then, that perhaps the thing he’ll remember most about his first major league win was the literal one.

He’d probably prefer to recall more important stuff from a 4-1 win over Boston Friday night at Globe Life Field. His pitch repertoire was far more varied than a year ago. He got a successful taste, albeit brief, of facing hitters a third time through. Even struck out Rafael Devers to end his evening, which gave him a nice set of three against the Red Sox No. 3 hitter. Five innings. A single run. One walk. Everything the Rangers could ask for. Became the fourth member of the Leiter family to record a big league win; they now have 238 altogether.

It was all good stuff. Fond memories.

“He can win up here, that’s what I hope he takes from this game,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He can get through a tough line up which they have and that should really do a lot for his confidence with what he did tonight. We lost last night. We needed to win tonight. He came through for us. That’s what he should remember.”

What he’s likely to be more forcefully reminded of though is this: Jonah Heim hit him squarely in the privates with a toss back to the mound. Like everything these days, it was caught on camera. And so was the reaction of Boston’s opening day starter Garrett Crochet, doubled over in the Red Sox dugout unable to stifle a laugh. Wins come and go, but memes last forever.

The good news: It was a loft softer than the two homers Heim hit, maybe as an apology. It was a good night all around for the Rangers, who got consecutive two-out hits in the sixth to open up a bigger lead and got a 1-2-3 ninth inning from Luke Jackson a day after he allowed a three-run game-changing homer.

In truth, Heim and Leiter were able to laugh about the incident too. Maybe even enough to lighten a critical moment in the start.

With two outs in the second, Leiter had just allowed a soft single to Kristian Campbell and a walk to Wilyer Abreu. It was his only walk. And considering the way Abreu has punished the Rangers through the first two games, maybe that was the best possible outcome. But, we digress. Heim had come out to calm Leiter and tossed the ball on his way out to the mound. Leiter was focused elsewhere. Baseball comedy happened.

Then Leiter got even more help from a teammate when Wyatt Langford turned and ran a post route to track down Connor Wong’s long fly ball to end the threat.

Even Leiter acknowledged there were times last year, on the way to an 8.83 ERA, when he’d think too much, try to do too much and wind up in a mess.

“My thing is always trying to slow myself down pre-game,” Leiter said. “I know the adrenaline is going to kick in and I feed off it. But it can go too far and that’s been kind of a thing that [hurt] last year. There were pockets last year when I tried to do too much; there were some of those pockets today. I’m always trying to limit them. Hopefully, I can be fully under control from Pitch One to the end of every outing eventually.”

Besides, he’d already been knocked around this week. Josh Jung hit him in the head during batting practice on opening day. Mercury is in retrograde, after all.

“That was probably a memorable opening day, but not for the right reasons,” Leiter said of opening day.

About Friday’s incident?

“Yeah, I don’t want to think about that now,” Leiter said with a laugh.

Point taken.

The comedic relief aside, it was a seriously important step for Leiter. Due to injuries to Jon Gray and Cody Bradford, the Rangers have placed Leiter and Kumar Rocker, fellow Vandy first-rounders, into the rotation. At least for now. What happens when Patrick Corbin is ready will largely depend on merit.

After mostly struggling in nine outings last year, most often as a spot starter, Leiter took the hard lessons home for the winter and honed in on becoming a more well-rounded pitcher.

He pitched well in spring training, but transitioning that to the regular season is something else for a young pitcher. He’d started to use his sinker more, which gave him something to change a batter’s eye level off the four-seam fastball he threw 51% of the time last year. And he fell in love with a “kick” changeup in which he spiked a finger on the ball. The result was more late downward movement as opposed to every other change he’d tried, which basically stayed straight and became a batting practice fastball. But everybody works on a new pitch in spring training. Batters are, for the most part, just working on timing.

“He’s put in a lot of work and he was determined to make this rotation,” Bochy said. “I just think he’s getting really close to a consistent major league pitcher that’s going to give you a chance to win every five days. He’s got four pitches. He does the little things. He’s a good athlete. The guy is a major league starter.”

On Friday, Leiter threw his four-seamer 35% of the time, the lowest in any start. He used the sinker almost as frequently, his changeup for a third pitch against the lefties at the top of the Boston order and the slider against right-handers. It was a mature, refined approach. By and large, he was in command all night. In the fourth, when he allowed his lone run on three consecutive singles, he showed no fear against Wong, who’d barreled a ball against him in the second, and got an inning-ending double play on the sinker.

Then he worked a 1-2-3 fifth to call it a night and put himself in position for that first win.

“Just winning is nice,” he said. “There were games I pitched last year where I felt like I could have pitched a lot better, but the team won, and that still felt good. But to be in the win column and to get the first win for the team this year, that was what was most important.”

One way or another, he’ll always remember his first.

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