Red Sox Snap 3-Game Losing Streak With Win Against Royals
BOSTON -- When the Boston Red Sox are in a slump, they usually turn to their bats 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.
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 June 23. Duffy allowed seven runs on nine hits, including three home runs, in five innings.
Kansas City (67-62) 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.
Pedroia led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to center field. Bogaerts then hit a 3-2 pitch into the parking lot across Lansdowne Street for a 2-0 Boston lead.
Royals catcher Salvador Perez helped the Royals get back at the Sox quickly with a one-out home run on an 0-1 pitch in the top of the second to trim the lead to 2-1. The line drive was clocked at 107 mph.
Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar followed with back-to-back doubles to tie the score 2-2 before Price came back to get the next two hitters.
The Red Sox regained the lead in the bottom of the second. Chris Young led off with a walk and Jackie Bradley Jr. doubled him home with one out. Pedroia's double scored Bradley to extend the lead to 4-2.
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.
Perez cut the lead to 8-3 with his second home run of the game in the top of the ninth.
