Garrett Richards gave up three homeruns over the first two innings and the Boston Red Sox got into an early 5-1 hole, but would rally on the strength of two Hunter Renfoe homeruns to pick up a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night at Fenway Park in the opener of a four game series.
Whit Merrifield and Jorge Soler led the game off with back to back singles, and then Carlos Santana hit a three-run homerun to right center for a quick 3-0 Kansas City lead. Kike Hernandez put the home team on the board when he hit his second leadoff homerun in as many days in the bottom of the first inning. Michael Taylor and Merrifield both hit solo homers in the top of the second to increase the advantage to 5-1 Royals. Bobby Dalbec responded with a solo shot of his own in the bottom half of the second, and then Boston rallied back to tie it in the fourth. Xander Bogaerts led off with a ground rule double, and Renfroe followed launching a long two-run homer to center to cut it to 5-4. Michael Chavis later tied it in the inning with an RBI single. Renfoe provided the game winner with his second of the night a solo bomb to left center off the National Car Rental sign above the monster in the sixth, his 11th of the season. The Red Sox are now 48-31, now a full game up on the second place and idle Tampa Bay Rays.
Richards in his no decision settled down after the first two innings, finishing with five runs allowed on 11 hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Hirokazu Sawumara (4-0) picked up the win in relief allowing just one hit in 1.1 innings, while Josh Taylor and Matt Barnes each worked a perfect inning with Barnes getting his 17th save. Renfoe had two hits and three RBI to lead the way, while Hernandez and Dalbec also had two hits a piece. Merrifield had three hits for Kansas City (33-44) in the loss, while Soler and Emmanuel Rivera in his MLB debut had two hits each. Josh Staumont (0-2) took the defeat on the mound in relief of Danny Duffy. Game two is Tuesday night at 7:10. The Sox send RHP Nick Pivetta (6-3, 4.00 ERA) to the hill against Brad Keller (6-8, 6.39) for the Royals.
