Rick Porcello fired a solid six innings and got his 10th win, and both Andrew Benintendi and Sam Travis drove in a pair of runs Monday night as the Boston Red Sox ended their eight game losing streak with a 7-5 win over the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.
Boston (60-55) broke a scoreless tie in the third inning when Xander Bogaerts reached on an error by KC shortstop Nicky Lopez to score Mookie Betts. After Benintendi grounded into a double play, Travis lifted a two run homer his third of the season to center to make it 3-0. Rafael Devers extended the lead to 4-0 with a solo homer to left center in the fifth. It was his 23rd of the year. Cheslor Cuthbert got the Royals on the board in the sixth on the only mistake Porcello made. Cuthbert put a solo shot into the monster seats to cut it to 4-1. Meibrys Viloria inched them even closer in the seventh with his first career homer off Nathan Eovaldi. The solo longball just got into the front row of the monster seats. The game winning runs were scored in the bottom half of the seventh. Scott Barlow unleashed a wild pitch allowing Sandy Leon to score, and then Benintendi hit a two run double to right making it 7-2. Bubba Starling took Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes deep over the monster in the top of the eighth for a three run shot to cut it to a pair again. Whit Merrifield hit a one out double in the ninth bringing the tying run to the plate twice, but Brandon Workman got Alex Gordon to ground out and struck out Hunter Dozier looking to earn the save.
Devers, Benintendi, and Michael Chavis all had two hits a piece as Boston won for the first time since July 27. Porcello (10-8) allowed just one run on four hits, with two walks and five strikeouts to pick up the win in his 6.0 inning effort. Workman got his sixth save. Merrifield and Dozier both had a pair of hits for 40-74 Kansas City. Mike Montgomery (1-5) took the loss allowing four runs (two earned) on seven hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts in 5.0 innings. The Royals have lost seven straight games.
Game two of the series is Tuesday night at 7:10 p.m. Boston sends Andrew Cashner to the bump to be opposed by Kansas City right hander Jakob Junis.
Boston right hander Rick Porcello gets set to throw a pitch in a game recently at Fenway Park. Porcello pitched well on Monday night to help the Red Sox beat the KC Royals and break an eight game losing streak. Photo courtesy of Delaney Gardner
