The Boston Red Sox clubbed three homeruns and built an early 8-0 lead Friday night, en route to a 10-5 win over the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri for their fourth straight win.
Chris Sale (9-4) picked up his 100th career win by allowing just one run, five hits, one walk, with 12 strikeouts in a 6.0 inning effort. Tyler Thornburg, Brandon Workman, and Hector Valazquez combined to allow four runs on five hits in the final three innings. Royals starter Jason Hammel (2-11) was torched for eight earned runs on nine hits in two innings. Mike Moustakas hit a two run homer and both Whit Merrifield and Jorge Bonifacio had two hits to lead the KC offense.
Mookie Betts led off the game with a solo homer to left center. The homer was the 22nd of the year for Betts, and his 100th of his career. Mookie becomes just the fourth player in Boston history to hit 100 homers before the age of 26. The others in that group were Ted Williams, Tony Coniglairo, and Jim Rice. JD Martinez and Xander Bogaerts also hit second inning two run homeruns for the 60-29 Red Sox. Steve Pearce had three hits and an RBI, while Andrew Benintendi, Martinez, and Brock Holt all had two hits each. Holt also had two runs driven in. Bogaerts reached base three times with the homer and two walks. The Royals drop to 25-62, and an MLB worst 11-33 at home. The Sox own the best record in the majors, and second best road record at 32-17.
Boston, now two games up over the Yankees in the division, goes for their fifth straight win Saturday night at 7:15 in game two of the series. The Sox will try to get a bounce back performance from lefty David Price, who was trounced by the Yankees the last time out. He will be opposed by Royals right hander Brad Keller.
