The Red Sox' three-game winning streak came to a screeching halt Friday with a 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals in the opener of a three-game series.
The Royals got a three-run homer from Adalberto Mondesi in the third. The Red Sox chipped away with solo runs, but of their 11 hits, all but one were singles and the Sox were just 2-for-9 with eight baserunners stranded.
Matt Andriese took over in the sixth for starter Nick Pivetta and promptly allowed solo runs in each of his two innings.
WHO: Red Sox (42-27) vs. Kansas City Royals (30-37)
WHEN: 8:10 p.m.
WHERE: Kauffman Stadium
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nick Pivetta (6-2, 4.28) vs. RHP Kyle Zimmer (3-0, 2.19)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM 93.7
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Arroyo 2B
Verdugo LF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Renfroe RF
Vazquez C
Gonzalez 1B
Santana CF
Vazquez
ROYALS
Merrifield RF
Santana 1B
Perez C
Soler DH
Mondesi SS
Dozier LF
Gutierrez 3B
Taylor CF
Lopez 2B
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: On a pitch just a inch or two above the dirt, Rafael Devers goes down and golfs a shot to straightaway center for his 17th homer of the season, brining the Sox back to within two.
B7: Jim Wolf has, frankly, had a brutal night behind the plate.
B7: Andriese burned again as Salvador Perez leads off the top of the seventh with an opposite-field homer, putting the Royals up by three.
B6: Back-to-back hits with two outs produced a run for the Royals with a run-scoring double from Whit Merrifield.
B6: This seems an odd choice for Cora. With a day off Thursday, the bullpen is fully rested and yet he goes to Matt Andriese, who's been struggling for some time, in a game in which the Sox trail by just a run.
T6: With one out in the sixth, a line drive double to right by Christian Vazquez is the first extra-base hit for the Red Sox tonight.
B5: Pivetta at 98 pitches and probably done for the night. Made a mistake with Mondesi and had traffic, but as he often does, pitched around a lot of trouble and limited the big innings.
T5: Red Sox have had plenty of opportunities, with eight hits and two walks. But with all those baserunners, everything's been a single and the Sox just left the bases loaded.
B3: Adalberto Mondesi hits a rocket out to RF for a three-run homer, belted over .460 feet. That's the sixth homer allowed by Pivetta over his last three starts.
T3: Some indecisive baserunning on the part of Arroyo, who broke for the plate but hesitated just long enough to get throw out at second.
T3: Alex Verdugo gets on top of a high fastball and lines a sharp single to RF, scoring Santana and sending Christian Arroyo to third.
T3: Danny Santana, who had been 0-for-12 and just 2-for-37, plunks a single into RF to open the inning.
B1: Shaky start to the first inning for Nick Pivetta, who puts the first two on. But he gets two flyout and a groundout to second to strand the runners.
WHAT's UP: The Red Sox are a season-high 15 games above .500 at 42-27...They have won three in a row and are 10-4 in their last 14... This is the 22nd time the Red Sox have won as many as 42 of their first 69 games...Under the 10-team playoff format from 2012-2019, 23 of 25 teams who won 42 or more of their first 69 games made the postseason. The Sox have won as many as 43 of their first 70 games 18 times, most recently in 2018, 2009, and 2007.....The Sox are an MLB-best 22-10 (.688) on the road while going 20-17 (.541) at Fenway Park.... The Red Sox lead the majors with 23 come-from-behind wins this season...The Sox are 20-10 (.667) in games decided by 1 or 2 runs, MLB’s 2nd-best record behind Cleveland (20-9)....The Red Sox lead the majors in runs scored with two outs with 154....44% of their runs have been scored with 2 outs (154 of 349). The Sox lead the majors in 2-strike RBI (142), 22 more than any other team (CWS-120). With RISP & two outs, the Sox lead the majors in AVG (.282), slugging (.513), OPS (.883), and HR (tied, 14)...The Sox and Royals entered the 2018 season tied at 235-235 in the all-time series, which began in 1969... The Sox have since won 10 of their last 12 games against KC. The Red Sox have won their last six games at Kauffman Stadium, their longest winning streak at the venue in its 49-year history (1973-2021)...The Sox scored seven or more runs in each of those six games for a total of 55 runs....The Red Sox have scored 10 or more runs in a game an AL-best 10 times, including in each of their last two games and three of their last seven...The Sox are an MLB-best 37-4 (.902) when scoring four or more runs...They are 32-3 when scoring five or more rns, 27-1 when scoring six or more runs, and 20-0 when scoring seven or more runs. The Sox’ last 12 HR have had an average projected distance of 426.9 feet...Red Sox pitchers posted a 2.47 ERA with five homers allowed in the first seven games this month...In nine games since, they have posted a 7.00 ERA with 23 HR allowed....The Sox still lead the AL with 0.99 HR/9.0 IP....Red Sox starters have thrown five or more innings 54 times, fourth-most in the majors...The Sox are 35-19 (.648) when their starter lasts five or more innings and 7-8 in all other games....Josh Taylor has made 19 consecutive scoreless appearances, the longest active streak in MLB..In that stretch, he's pitched 15.0 IP with 20 SO and 0.80 WHIP, with a.140 opponent batting average... : In his last six starts, Nick Pivetta has 45 SO to 11 BB (4.1 SO/BB)....Has thrown five or more innings in nine of his last 10 starts, including 6.0+ in five of them.. He allowed a season-high six runs in his last start, the most he's allowed in a game since July 3, 2019....He leads Red Sox starters in opponent AVG (.227) and strikeouts and ranks 2nd in SO/9.0 IP and WHIP...J.D. Martinez has a seven-game hitting streak and Xander Bogaerts has hit safely over his last four...
NOTES:
* The Red Sox were pleased with how Tanner Houck came out of his first start since experiencing flexor strain problems. He pitched three innings Thursday night and struck out six. "I watched the game and that was pretty solid and today he showed up at the ballpark and everything was good,'' said Alex Cora.
* Cora said the Sox are discussing some adjustments to their rotation as they get closer to the All-Star break. "We have to see where we're at physically and make decisions,'' said Cora. "If we have to piggy-back guys or taper down (the workload) a little bit, we might do it. It's very important, especially coming from what they're came from last year with only 60 games. Everybody's posted as of now every five days, but we have to take care of these guys. We're in the middle of this. There's no looking back. We love the fact that we're going to be (in the race) and it's going to be a fun summer. But at the same time, we have to think not only about the present but also about the future. We'll have conversations and we'll see how we're going to attack that.''
* MLB has relaxed some protocols for Tier I and II people in the game who are fully vaccinated no longer have to wear masks in the dugout. "It was very different,'' said Cora of the experience Wednesday night in Atlanta. "Now I have to be careful with what I have to say. With the mask, nobody noticed it. It feels like the outside world right now, it feels normal. We got the message in the third inning and they asked me what I wanted to do. I didn't even answer. I just grabbed (my mask) and threw it away. But there are certain things that we're going to keep doing. Testing is more relaxed now, but with us having families and being away from them, we've got to be responsible. From my end, I will keep getting tested as scheduled because I have everybody back home and I don't want them to get sick. So you just have to be responsible and smart. There are still some things that we cannot do because we're not at 85 percent (as a team), but it feels a lot different.''
* Cora met up with former Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi outside the clubhouse. Benintendi is on the IL with a rib injury and won't take part in this series. The Sox sent Benintendi to the Royals in February in a three-team deal that saw the Sox get five players in return. "He's doing well,'' said Cora. "A little down because he's hurt, but he looks great physically. He put in the work and he's back to his old self. He's having a good season and having fun. I'm very happy with the way he's performing. I do feel he got caught up in hitting the ball in the air. When you do that, sometimes your moves aren't the same. I think he got slower and he couldn't catch up with fastballs. I know he's playing well for them.''