The Red Sox were heading into a 4 game series with the Kansas City Royals last night with Jon Lester on the mound. In previous seasons the Royals were a team that you could beat up on and try to make a move in the standings. This year the Royals have made a surge and are suddenly looking like quite a legit team. They have very good pitching and their bats have a little bit of pop to them.
Lester found a lot of trouble in the first inning and ended up throwing 41 pitches and giving up 3 runs. Lester had runners at first and third with one out when it looked like a pop fly was headed out to Gomes in left field. Unfortunately, Gomes stumbled and wasn't able to make the play letting a run score. Sox 0-1. Lester then gave up a 2 run RBI single to have the Sox down 0-3. It was not the type of inning Lester was hoping to have to start his outing. Lester did settle down after that point, but the damage was done, especially since Kansas City's Chen was dominating the Sox lineup. Lester kept pitching through the 7th and would end up having a pretty decent outing, but he was still in line for the loss. Lester's pitching line for the night was 121 pitches, 7 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 BB and 4 Ks. That's not the kind of outing I am going to complain about or say I want Lester chased out of town for. The error in the 1st hurt him and the team and he received no run support while he was in the game.
In the 8th Rubby De La Rosa came in to relieve Jon Lester. De La Rosa didn't have his best outing since he gave up solo homeruns to Butler and Maxwell in his inning of work. The Sox were now trailing 0-5. In the top of the 9th the Sox were finally able to crack the scoreboard, but it was too little too late. Stephen Drew, who has continued to look hot at the plate, hit an RBI single to score Jonny Gomes. However that would be it for the Sox rally and they would fall to the Royals for the first game of the series.
Red Sox 1 Royals 5 BOXSCORE
WP: Chen (5-0) LP: Lester (10-7) SV: Hochevar (2)
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