Red Sox Edge Royals 8-6 In Roller Coaster Win

At this point in the season where the Red Sox are clearly out of contention, winning has become a luxury rather than a necessity for me. I’ve been happy with individual performances and good baseball, but a win is always nice. Today, the Red Sox got all three of those in what amounted to be a very fun, exciting game to watch. The Red Sox took a little early lead in the first inning when Cody Ross drove Pedro Ciriaco in with a single. They added to that lead in the second inning on an RBI double high off the monster for Mike Aviles, scoring Mauro Gomez from first to make it 2-0.

Red Sox starter Felix Doubront (10-6, 4.70 entering play) and Royals’ starter Will Smith (4-5, 5.40 entering play) each held the opposition for the next few innings. That was until the Royals put a two out rally together in the fourth inning– putting runners at first and second with two outs. The two out hits just kept on coming as Tony Abreu drove in a run with a single to left before the big blow came when Lorenzo Cain homered on a liner just over the monster to give the Royals a 4-2 lead.

It took them an inning, but the Red Sox came storming back from that in the fifth, starting with a one out solo home run for Pedro Ciriaco– the second home run of his young career. After that, the Red Sox managed to put runners at the corners with two outs for newcomer James Loney. Loney wasted no time, driving the first pitch back up the middle for a game tying single to knot things up at four apiece.

The Red Sox picked up the go ahead run in the next inning on a line drive single for Jacoby Ellsbury which deflected off first baseman Eric Hosmer‘s glove to score Mauro Gomez from second. The Red Sox tacked on a couple more runs in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with one out off Royals’ reliever Jeremy Jeffress. They scored one when Scott Podsednik hit a ground ball right through the legs off shortstop Alcides Escobar and scored another on an infield single for Pedro Ciriaco to give the Red Sox a 7-4 lead.

At this point, Pedro Beato (making his Red Sox debut) had been pitching for two innings and doing great, but he started off the eighth by loading the bases on two singles and a walk. He was pulled in favor of Craig Breslow who allowed two inherited runners to score on a sacrifice fly for Eric Hosmer and an RBI single for Tony Abreu to cut it to a one run game. Dustin Pedroia‘s leadoff blast in the bottom of the inning gave the Red Sox some much needed insurance though, en route to an 8-6 win in Boston.