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ONE LAST RUN FOR A
RED SOX LEGEND - August 27, 2016 ... A night after leaving 11 runners stranded and going 4 for 15 with runners in scoring position, the Sox hammered out double-digit hits for the 67th time this season, and the Sox took a fire extinguisher to the Kansas City Royals' red-hot starter Danny Duffy on the way to an 8-3 win that snapped a three-game losing streak. Coming in, the matchup had the look of a pitcher's duel between two of baseball's best lefties in Duffy and David Price. Duffy was as hot as anyone in baseball. He was riding a 10-game winning streak and he hadn't given up more than two runs in any of his past five starts. But the Sox always had given him trouble. He'd made five starts against them in his career with an 0-3 record and a 5.61 ERA to show for it. Things didn't go much better for him this time around. He was roughed up for seven runs on nine hits (both season highs) and knocked out of the game after five innings, his shortest start since June. Meanwhile, David Price held the Royals to two runs on five hits in six innings, striking out seven to pick up his fourth straight win and up his record to 13-8. The assault on Duffy started from the top down with Pedroia going 4 for 5 with two RBIs. Xander Bogaerts went 2 for 4 with a two-run homer and an RBI double. Hanley Ramirez went 2 for 4, hitting his 17th homer of the season. Duffy found himself in trouble from the start. Pedroia stroked a leadoff single to center to start the game. The next at-bat, it seemed like he'd overpower Bogaerts with his fastball after firing one in at 96 miles per hour that Bogaerts had to foul off. But when he dialed it up to 97 with the count full, it stayed in the middle of the plate and Bogaerts launched it into the Monster seats for his 16th homer of the season. The Royals got the runs back in the second, when Salvador Perez tagged Price for a solo homer (the 22d Price has allowed this season) and Alcides Escobar ripped an RBI double to the gap in left-center to tie it at 2, but Price kept them quiet the rest of the night while the Sox piled up runs. Trying to work his way out of a slump, Jackie Bradley Jr. came through with an RBI ground-rule double over the short fence in right in the second inning. An at-bat later, Pedroia followed up by shooting a line drive down the left-field line that scored Bradley and gave the Sox a 4-2 lead. Pedroia struck again in the fourth with a two-out RBI single. In the fifth, Betts and Ramirez blew the game open with back-to-homers. The blast gave Betts 29 homers for the season and five homers in just 16 career games against the Royals. The Sox went 4 for 9 with runners in scoring position and stranded just five runners. The win kept them a game behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. Dustin Pedroia led off the game with a single, doubled in the second inning, and singled again in the fifth, extending his hit streak to 10 consecutive at-bats. He was inching toward the MLB record of 12 straight hits. When Pedroia went up in the sixth, his teammates were pressed up against the railing, watching intently. He singled for 11 straight, pulling just one hit shy of Johnny Kling, Pinky Higgins, and Walt Dropo. His ride ended there. In the eighth inning, he grounded to second to start a double play, ending his night 4 for 5 with a double and two RBIs. |
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