FINAL: Red Sox 7, Royals 3 - Yoshida and Duvall homer; Alex Verdugo exits

WHO: Red Sox (70-66) at Royals (42-95) 
WHEN: 2:10 p.m. 
WHERE: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City. 
SERIES TO DATE: Boston leads, 4-2. 
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Taylor Clarke (2-4, 5.44 ERA) vs. LHP Chris Sale (5-3, 4.75 ERA) 
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

LIVE BOX

LINEUP

RED SOX

Verdugo RF
Devers 3B 
Turner DH 
Casas 1B
Duvall CF
Yoshida LF 
Story SS
Valdez 2B
Wong C
Sale SP

ROYALS 

Garcia 3B 
Witt Jr. SS
Olivares DH 
Perez C
Velázquez RF 
Duffy 1B 
Loftin 2B
Taylor LF 
Blanco CF
Clarke SP 

PRE-GAME NOTES

The Red Sox today activated LHP Brennan Bernardino from the COVID-19 list and placed RHP Garrett Whitlock on the bereavement list.

RHP Bryan Bello and RHP Kutter Crawford will start in the Tampa series beginning tomorrow with the third starter unknown, possibly RHP Nick Pivetta, who will appear in a bullpen or bulk role if not. Pivetta earned the save in three innings of relief on Saturday. LHP James Paxton could get pushed back.

RHP Zach Greinke will serve as Kansas City's bulk reliever today. 

Boston moved 5.5 games back of Texas in the AL wild card race with the Rangers' 9-7 loss to Minnesota. Texas has lost three straight games. Toronto is 1.5 games back, 4.0 games above the Red Sox. 

WHAT'S UP 

The Red Sox snapped a season-high-tying 5-game losing streak last night...They are 4-6 in their last 10 games since 8/23...The Sox are 14-19 in their last 33 games, beginning 7/29, after going an MLB-best 16-5 from 6/30-7/28...At 70-66 (.515), Boston is tied with Arizona and San Francisco for MLB’s 13th-best record...In their last 12 games since 8/21, the Sox have 3 players ranked in the top 6 AL leaders in AVG (min. 40 AB): Adam Duvall (1st, .422), Triston Casas (4th, .375), and Alex Verdugo (6th, .357)...They also rank among AL leaders in a number of other categories over that span...Duvall leads the AL in XBH (13), HR (7, tied), SLG (1.022) and OPS (1.502), and is 2nd in RBI (15) and hits (19, tied).... Casas ranks T-6th in the AL in hits (15), T-4th in BB (8), 3rd in OBP (.490), 6th in OPS (1.090), and T-9th in SLG (.600)...Verdugo leads the AL in hits (20), ranks T-3rd in XBH (8), T-7th in HR (4), 6th in SLG (.661) and 8th in OPS (1.029)...With the win last night, the Sox secured the season series vs. KC for the 5th time in the last 6 years (since 2018)...Boston won 3 of the 4 games played vs. the Royals at Fenway Park from 8/7-10...The Red Sox are 9-6 at Kauffman Stadium since the start of 2018, but are 3-6 since the start of 2021...A win today would give the Sox their first series victory at the venue since sweeping a 3-game series from 6/4-6/19...The Sox are 23-10 vs. the Royals since the start of 2018...With his 432nd win last night, Alex Cora moved into a tie with John Farrell for 6th place on the Red Sox’ all-time managerial wins list...The only people to manage 500+ Red Sox games and post a better winning percentage than Cora’s .551 mark are Don Zimmer (.575) and Terry Francona (.574)...The Sox are 1-0-1 in their last 2 road series (3-0 at NYY, 2-2 at HOU) after losing each of their previous 4 since 7/17-19...With a win today, the Red Sox would improve to 23-18-3 in series play overall, surpassing their series win total from 2022 (22-24-6)...They would also improve to 10-9-3 in series on the road, matching their road series win total from 2022 (10-14-2)... Beginning tomorrow at TB, Boston will play 8 more series in 2023, including 4 on the road...The Sox are 10-5 in LHP Chris Sale's starts (5-2 in last 7)...Owns a 5.30 ERA in 4 starts since returning from the IL (18.2 IP, 11 ER, 16 H, 25 SO, 6 BB)....Allowed 13 hits in his last 2 starts (9.2 IP), after giving up 3 hits in his previous 2 (9.0 IP)....Has allowed only 6 HR over his last 12 starts (5 solo, 1 two-run)....In 35 outings vs. the Royals (24 starts), is 12-10 with 2 saves and a 2.73 ERA (56 ER/184.2 IP)...Has thrown more innings against KC than any other team (184.2)...In his last 5 starts vs. KC, is 4-0 with a 1.60 ERA (39.1 IP, 7 ER, 50 SO, 5 BB)...Last faced the Royals on 6/5/19 at Kauffman Stadium (9.0 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 0 BB, 12 SO)...In 18 games in KC (12 GS), is 7-5 with a 2.76 ERA (30 ER/97.2 IP)...Has struck out 10+ batters in each of his last 4 starts at Kauffman Stadium....