All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' win over the Royals, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
Home is where the wins are: At the start of the season, manager Alex Cora noted that he wanted the Red Sox to once again have a distinct home field field advantage playing at Fenway Park. The team had a losing record at home in 2019, and the same thing happened at home last year. But halfway through the 2021 season, it would appear that the Sox are again making Fenway a tough place for visitors to play. Their 15-1 win Thursday completed a four-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, expanded their winning streak to seven straight wins at home and improved their home mark for the season to 27-17. That record is even better if you remove the season-opening sweep by the Baltimore Orioles - since then, the Red Sox are 27-14, a pace that has them very nearly winning two of every three games at home. It's also worth noting that the team has played far better ever since Fenway expanded to full capacity and while the Sox have played before just two sell-out crowds to date, even the games where Fenway has 25,000 or so fans in attendance have become loud and energized.
Eovaldi provides length again: In the team's weekend sweep of the Yankees, Nathan Eovaldi pitched into the eighth inning for the first time this season before needing some help from the bullpen to close out the game. On Thursday, with the bullpen gassed because of the recent workload, Eovaldi again took the Sox deep into the game, tossing seven shutout innings and requiring just 84 pitches. As it turned out, the first inning was the toughest for him as the Royals strung together two hits in the first three batters to set up a first-and-third, two-out opportunity. But Eovaldi got a strikeout for the final out of the inning, stranding two and after that, allowed just one baserunner in scoring position the rest of the way. In fact, from the final out of the third through the end of his outing, Eovaldi retiredd 13 of the last 14 hitters he faced. With his pitch count still relatively modest, Cora said he could have asked Eovaldi to finish up, but decided against it, taking the long view of things. Eovaldi is now 9-4, has clearly been the team's most consistent starter this season and may have set himself up for All-Star consideration.
TURNING POINT
The Red Sox had a comfortable 5-0 lead heading into the fifth inning, and that seemed secure enough, considering the way they've been scoring runs at will, and the way the Royals have nose-dived their way to nine straight losses. But just to make sure, Rafael Devers stroked a two-run single to left-center, stretching the lead to 7-0 and what morsel of doubt as it related to the game's outcome was all-but-officially wiped out.
TWO UP:
Rafael Devers: He matched his season-best with a five RBI afternoon thanks to a two-run single and a three-run homer.
Danny Santana: Santana has been in a miserable slump for more than a month, but cracked a three-run homer -- his first in his last 67 at-bats -- and set a career high with five RBI.
ONE DOWN:
Matt Andriese: Tasked with closing the game out, Andriese had a messy ninth inning, as, with two outs, he allowed three straight hitters to reach base while losing the team's shutout bid.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"It started with a tribute to No. 15 (Dustin Pedroia) and we scored 15 (runs) in the last game of the homestand.'' Alex Cora on his team's successful last week at Fenway.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* The Red Sox set a season high in runs and matched a season high in hits.
* For the eighth time this season and third time on this homestand, the Red Sox hit at least four homers.
* Xander Bogaerts extended his on-base streak to 26 consecutive games while J.D. Martinez stretched his streak to 20.
* Rafael Devers has 21 RBI in his last 17 games and leads all of MLB with 69 RBI.
* Kike Hernandez hit his third leadoff homer of the week.
UP NEXT: The Red Sox begin a six-game West Coast road trip Friday night in Oakland at 9:40 with LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (6-4, 5.83) vs. RHP Frankie Montas (7-7, 4.72)
