Man, don’t you just love when you see the Royals on the Red Sox schedule? It’s almost a lock for Boston to be victorious every time the two teams take the field. Well, things didn’t change tonight, as the Sox won 4-3.
After giving up five runs in the first inning to the Seattle Mariners in his last start, Josh Beckett was back to his old self. The Cy Young candidate pitched seven strong innings, only allowing three runs on seven hits. As the game wore on, Beckett seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.
Kansas City starter Luke Hochevar got some early run support, but couldn’t maintain the lead for long. In all, Hochevar went six innings, surrendering four runs on eights hits while striking out six.
The Royals played small ball in the first inning to get to Beckett early. After Alex Gordon led the game off with a double, Melky Cabrera moved him over to third with a sacrifice bunt. Billy Butler drove in Gordon with a sacrifice fly to put Kansas City ahead early.
An inning later, Jason Varitek helped tie the score up for his battery mate after singling in Josh Reddick from second. The Sox took the lead the following inning on a key two-out, two-run single by Dustin Pedroia.
But Beckett would ensue to allow a two-run shot to Gordon in the bottom half of the third and once again the score was tie, this time at threes.
Yet again “The Muddy Chicken” came through with what turned out to be the game-winning RBI in the fifth inning. After Adrian Gonzalez struck out (what’s happened to him?), Pedroia lined a Hochevar offering up the middle to put Boston up for good.
Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon shut the door on the Royals bats, respectively, and sealed the win for Boston.
The two teams are back at it tomorrow night for the second game of the four game set. Andrew Miller will be making his first start since July 31st, and all we can do as a Nation is pray.
