FINAL: Red Sox 5, Kansas City Royals 0 - Crawford's Dominant Performance Aids Sox To Victory

The Red Sox (52-42) even up the final series of the first half with a 5-0 win against the Kansas City Royals (52-44).

The Sox had a tough matchup on paper today, going against All Star pitcher Seth Lugo. The Boston bats had no problem today, tallying ten hits against Lugo, and getting five runs across the plate. The scoring opened in the second inning, with Reese McGuire doubling to right, bringing home Dominic Smith from first. In the third inning, Wilyer Abreu hit a ground rule double which allowed Masataka Yoshida to score. Then Dom Smith singled, which brought home both Rafael Devers and Abreu. In the bottom of the fifth, the final Sox run was scored by way of a solo home run from Rafael Devers, which landed in the monster seats. It was his 194th home run of his career, breaking the tie with Jason Varitek for 11th on the Red Sox all time home run list. Varitek was waiting for Devers on the dugout steps, and he was the one to place the home run medal around Raffy's neck.

Kutter Crawford got the start today, and it was one of the best starts of the season for him. He pitched seven innings, allowing just two hits, and he struck out four. He threw 96 total pitches, and 76 of them were strikes. Zack Kelly would replace him in the eighth inning, and he would also finish the game. In those two innings, he allowed two hits and struck out two.

My Player of the Game: Kutter Crawford - Kutter will get some well earned rest over the all star break after his outstanding performance in today's game. He brings his record to 6-7 on the year, with an ERA of 3.04.

Tomorrow's rubber match will begin at 1:35 p.m. Probable starters for the first half finale are Brady Singer (5-5, 2.93 ERA) and Brayan Bello (9-5, 5.40 ERA)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ___________________________

WHO: Kansas City Royals (52-43) at Red Sox (51-42)
WHEN: 4:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: 0-1
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Seth Lugo (11-3, 2.21 ERA) vs. RHP Kutter Crawford (5-7, 3.24 ERA)
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

LIVE BOX

LINEUPS

RED SOX

Jarren Duran CF
David Hamilton 2B
Masataka Yoshida DH
Rafael Devers 3B
Rob Refsnyder LF
Wilyer Abreu RF
Dominic Smith 1B
Reese McGuire C
Ceddanne Rafaela SS

SP Kutter Crawford

OPPONENT

Adam Frazier 2B
Bobby Witt Jr SS
Vinnie Pasquantino 1B
Salvador Perez DH
Hunter Renfroe RF
MJ Melendez LF
Freddy Fermin C
Maikel Garcia 3B
Garrett Hampson CF

SP Seth Lugo 

WHAT'S UP

The Sox lost the series opener to the Kansas City Royals last night, 6-1. Ceddanne Rafaela knocked in the lone run with an RBI double in the second inning.

The Red Sox have lost 2 of their last 3 games after winning 7 of their previous 8. They're 18-8 in their last 26 games, since 6/12. BOS is 29-18 in 47 games since 5/19, MLB's 2nd-best record in that span behind HOU (30-18, .625). At 51-42 (.548), the Sox own MLB's 9th-best record.

Boston will wear their Nike City Connect Series uniforms today...They’re 33-10 overall when wearing them, including 18-6 since the start of 2023 (6-3 in 2024). They’ve outscored opponents 233-155 in the jerseys

The Red Sox are 20-12 (.625) during the day, tied with BAL for MLB's 4th-best daytime record. The Sox rank 4th in MLB in day-game ERA (3.53).

The Sox rank in the AL's top 5 in doubles (3rd, 167), triples (T-2nd, 24), HR (T-5th, 109), XBH (3rd, 300), AVG (4th, .253), OBP (4th, .321), SLG (4th, .422), and OPS (5th, .743). Since 6/1, they rank 2nd in the AL in OBP (.337, MIN-.351).

Boston is 40-4 (.909) when scoring 5+ runs, tied with SEA (30-3) for MLB's best record when doing so. They've won each of their last 24 games when doing so.

Jarren Duran ranks T-5th in MLB and T-2nd among outfielders in bWAR (4.8). He's the 1st American League player ever to record 100 hits, 10 triples, 10 HR and 20 stolen bases before the All-Star break...The only NL player to do so was NYM's José Reyes in 2008.