The visiting Kansas City Royals put up a pair of crooked numbers as they overcame an early two-run deficit and beat the Boston Red Sox 7-3 on Wednesday night in the finale of a three-game series.
Jonathan India hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning and had two hits and two runs to pace the Royals offense. Kyle Isbel drove in two, while Massachusetts native Mike Yastrzemski, Adam Frazier and John Rave also had multiple hits.
Scoring in four of the final seven frames allowed Kansas City to cruise, as it largely stymied the Red Sox bats after Romy Gonzalez’s two-out, two-run double off the Green Monster in the first.
Michael Wacha (6-9) threw six solid innings of two-run ball to earn a victory against his former team, allowing just two of his five hits after the opening frame.
Gonzalez (two doubles, two RBIs) and Trevor Story (RBI, run scored) paced Boston, which saw its seven-game win streak come to an end.
Back-to-back hits in the third inning got Kansas City on the board against Dustin May (6-8), who was making his Red Sox debut after being traded there at the trade deadline. Yastrzemski lined a leadoff ground-rule double inside the right-field line and scored on Bobby Witt Jr.’s RBI single up the middle.
India and Rave started the Royals’ go-ahead fourth inning with back-to-back singles with one out before Isbel’s two-run liner into center field made it 3-2.
After replacing May (3 2/3 innings), Chris Murphy stranded two on base to keep the deficit at one run, but India delivered the biggest swing of the night with a three-run shot off Jordan Hicks just over the ledge on top of the Monster in the seventh.
Red Sox pitchers hit a franchise-record five batters.
After May worked out of a jam in the first inning of his Red Sox debut, Gonzalez’s two-run knock made it an early 2-0 game.
Yastrzemski took a potential home run away from newly extended Red Sox rookie Roman Anthony, making a catch against the wall in the right-field corner to end the fifth.
After the first, the Red Sox were held scoreless until Connor Wong scored on Trevor Story’s two-out single to center in the eighth.
–Field Level Media
