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KAUFFMAN STADIUM |
BOSTON STRONG -
THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION
Jon Lester stumbles out of
the gate in the first inning
August 8, 2013 ...
The frustrated Red Sox come up and went back down as Bruce Chen worked them for 7 2/3 shutout innings in a 5-1 Kansas City victory at Kauffman Stadium. Chen's arsenal, which is basically in the 83-89-mph range, resulted in a siege of weak infield popups and soft
fly balls to the outfield.
Jon Lester threw 41 pitches in the first, but rallied to match Chen's string of zeros from the second through the seventh. It was enough to save the bullpen some wear and tear, but not enough to position the Red Sox for a victory.
John Farrell shook up the lineup in the series opener with David Ortiz getting a night off and Gomes and Stephen Drew
cast in the No. 4 and No. 5 hitting slots. But there was no shaking up Chen, who scattered five hits before leaving with two on and two outs in the eighth. Reliever Luke Hochevar retired
Shane Victorino, and that was that.
Given the offensive challenges, the Red Sox needed to be sharp in the pitching and defense departments and there are problems in both areas as the Royals took quick control with a three-run first inning. Jon Lester surrendered a leadoff double to
Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer advanced the runner by grounding to first. Lester worked carefully to
Billy Butler and wound up walking him before Alex Gordon lofted a fly ball to left. Gomes wanted to stay
back and run through the ball so he could have full momentum for a throw to the plate. But Gomes slipped when he tried to come forward and the ball dropped for an error as the run scored. The Sox committed three errors behind him, including the drop by
Gomes that changed the tenor of the game. Lester recovered and shut down the Royals over the six innings that followed on 80 pitches. He gave up only two other hits.
A 1-0 deficit became 3-0 when Mike Moustakas lashed a two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs. The Royals made it 5-0 in the eighth thanks to solo homers by Butler and
Justin Maxwell against reliever Rubby De La Rosa. A double by Gomes and an RBI single by Drew in the ninth enabled Boston to avoid a shutout.
Kansas City has won 14 of its last 16 games to crawl back into the wild-card race and has the lowest team earned run average in the league.
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BROCK HOLT |
Mike Napoli went into the game hitting .250 with 14 home runs and 64 RBIs. His on-base percentage of .339 is in line with what the Red Sox expected. But Napoli's .441 slugging percentage is the lowest of his career. Napoli went 1 for 4 and grounded into a
double play to end the game. He has struck out 148 times in 392 at-bats.
The Red Sox are nine games into using Brock Holt and Brandon Snyder as their third basemen. Xander Bogaerts and Will Middlebrooks remain at Triple A Pawtucket. Holt and Snyder are 5 for 32 (.156) since taking over after the trade of Jose Iglesias. With
Daniel Nava back from paternity leave, the Red Sox optioned righthander Steven Wright back to Triple A Pawtucket. Lefthander Franklin Morales, who threw an inning for Portland, has been on the DL since June 23 with a strained pectoral muscle on his left
side. With Matt Thornton going on the DL, the Sox want a third lefty reliever. |
