Royals Drop First Game of Pivotal Home Series to Red Sox
Entering Monday, the Royals sat in the final spot in the American League Wild Card standings (albeit briefly with the Orioles and Yankees tied atop the AL East). With a three-game home tilt against Boston, entering the week at 2.5 back, came opportunity for Kansas City (63-51) to capture some palpable momentum. In Monday's series opener, that was not to be.
Instead, every Red Sox (60-51) starter got a hit and pitcher James Paxton picked up his ninth win of the season with a six-inning, two-run outing. All told, thanks largely to separation accrued in the sixth and seventh innings, Boston took game one by a 9-5 score at Kauffman Stadium.
The Red Sox scored twice in the second inning, with an RBI double by infielder David Hamilton and a run-scoring groundout by 2024 All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran. The Royals eventually tied it up, scoring one in the third on a single by shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and another in the fourth on a single from designated hitter Freddy Fermin.
The fifth inning came and went in a scoreless fashion, then Duran collected a two-RBI double off Brady Singer on the top of the sixth. Singer's day finished at 5.2 innings and four runs allowed. The Red Sox added four more runs in the seventh, including a two-run home run by Romy Gonzalez, who entered the game as a pinch hitter for first baseman Dominic Smith.
Kansas City got two of those runs back in the seventh inning. Adam Frazier, who had also come into the contest as a pinch hitter, hit an RBI single. Third baseman Maikel Garcia then doubled to score Frazier. Each team got one more run from there. Red Sox catcher Connor Wong batted in Masataka Yoshida, who had four of the Red Sox's 18 hits, in the top of the eighth. Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino responded with a solo home run, his 16th of the season, in the home half.
Pasquantino has had the hot hand at the plate recently, but that was his only hit of the game. Second baseman Michael Massey was the only Royal with more than one hit. Right fielder Hunter Renfroe was 0-4. Meanwhile, Boston had four players with only one hit in the game and five with two. Singer took the loss.
Two more games between the two sides remain, both with first pitch times of 7:10 p.m. CT, just as Monday's game had. Should the Royals win the next two, they would end up still in front of the Red Sox. If Boston sweeps, it will come out ahead of Kansas City in the Wild Card standings.
WILL MILLER