Boston 8, Kansas City 3
When: 7:10 PM ET, Saturday, August 27, 2016
Where: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
Temperature:
75°
Umpires:
Home -
Adrian Johnson, 1B -
Chad Whitson, 2B -
Eric Cooper, 3B -
Jim Wolf
Attendance:
37933
By The Sports Xchange
BOSTON -- When the Boston Red Sox are in a slump, they usually turn to their league-leading offense to break them out of it.
That's what the Red Sox did Saturday.
Boston snapped a three-game losing streak by rapping out 12 hits, including three home runs, and Dustin Pedroia just missed tying a record for consecutive at-bats with a hit in an 8-3 win against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox (72-57), who remained one game behind the Toronto Blue Jays for first place in the American League East, had scored seven runs during their three-game losing streak.
Pedroia went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, but he grounded into an inning-ending double play in the eighth to snap his streak of 11 straight hits, one shy of tying the major league mark. He had reached base in 12 straight plate appearances.
"I don't really think about it, man, I just try to have good at-bats, get on base and start the offense," Pedroia said. "I try to not think about the at-bat before and move on to the next one."
Xander Bogaerts (2-for-4, three RBIs), Hanley Ramirez and Mookie Betts hit Boston's home runs.
The Red Sox's outburst was more impressive because it came against one of the hottest pitchers in baseball. Royals starting and losing pitcher Danny Duffy (11-2) was bidding for a franchise-record-tying 11th straight win, but instead he had his shortest outing since he lasted just 4 2/3 innings on June 23. Duffy allowed seven runs on nine hits, including three home runs, in five innings.
"Good stuff, but just had trouble putting it where he wanted to," Royals manager Ned Yost said about Duffy. "Was wild in the zone a little bit. That's a pretty good hitting group over there. You can't make mistakes and get away with too many of them."
Catcher Salvador Perez homered twice for Kansas City (67-62), which had won 11 of its past 12 games.
Boston starter David Price (13-8) earned his fourth straight win by going six innings and allowing two runs on five hits against the Royals. Price, now 13-8 with a 3.97 ERA, struck out seven and walked two and improved to 4-0 career against Kansas City.
"He was great," Pedroia said. "We gave him a couple runs early. Obviously he gave up that home run but he settled in and threw the ball great, attacking the zone all night. It was great to play behind him."
Bogaerts hit a 3-2 pitch into the parking lot across Lansdowne Street for a 2-0 Boston lead in the bottom of the first. Perez hit his first home run of the night and Alcides Escobar hit a RBI double to tie the score 2-2 in the top of the second but the Royals didn't score again until Perez's home run in the ninth.
Jackie Bradley Jr. and Pedroia had RBI doubles in the bottom of the second inning to give Boston a 4-2 lead and they never let the Royals back in the game. Pedroia delivered a two-out RBI single in bottom of the fourth, and Mookie Betts and Ramirez hit back-to-back solo home runs in the fifth for a 7-2 Boston lead.
Bogaerts drove in another run with a ground-rule double in the bottom of the sixth for an 8-2 lead.
NOTES: Red Sox C Ryan Hanigan began a rehab assignment at Double-A Portland on Saturday. He went 0-for-3 with a walk. Hanigan has been on the disabled list since Aug. 6 (retroactive to Aug. 5) with left ankle tendinitis. He is batting .158 with one home run and 13 RBIs this season. ... Boston OF Jackie Bradley Jr. was dropped to ninth in the batting order Saturday. It was the first time he batted ninth since May 13. The Red Sox were 17-9 in games that Bradley batted ninth before he began regularly hitting higher in the order. ... Royals LHP Jason Vargas, RHP Kris Medlen and RHP Wade Davis all pitched for Triple-A Omaha on rehab assignments Saturday. Vargas started and allowed four runs on six hits. Davis pitched one scoreless inning and Medlen went two scoreless, hitless innings.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| Kansas City |
|
Boston |
|
Danny Duffy
|
Player |
David Price
|
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
|
5.0 |
IP |
6.0 |
|
2 |
Strikeouts |
7 |
|
9 |
Hits |
5 |
|
12.60 |
ERA |
3.00 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Kansas City
|
6 |
2 |
15 |
.182 |
9 |
9 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
| Boston
|
12 |
3 |
24 |
.353 |
13 |
3 |
8 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
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