Bruce Chen silenced the Red Sox
bats in a 5-1 victory on Thursday night in Kansas City. Chen went 7 and 2/3 innings of scoreless ball
and though he doesn’t throw all that hard had Boston off all night. It was a siege of weak infield popups and
soft fly balls to the outfield. They
simply couldn’t do anything against the Royals starter.
Seven hits are all they could
muster and they hardly had any runners in scoring position all night going 1
for 2. They left only 5 men on base.
Jacoby Ellsbury had 2 hits on the
night and Stephen Drew also chipped in 2 of his own and an RBI. Drew is up to .253 now and is currently red
hot. Gomes, Napoli and Nava all had one
hit a piece and Dustin Pedroia reached base with a walk. That was it folks, nothing to write home
about with the offense.
It was a rough first inning for
Jon Lester who didn’t get much help behind him defensively. Lester surrendered a leadoff double to
Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer advanced the runner by grounding out to
first. Lester then walked Billy Butler
and up came Alex Gordon who lofted a fly ball to left. Jonny Gomes misplayed the ball and the ball
dropped in for an error and the run scored.
Gomes tried to stay back on the ball and run through it so he would have
an opportunity to throw out Cain at the plate.
Unfortunately he slipped as he tried to come forward and the ball fell
in.
The error would prove costly as not only did the run score on the play but Mike Moustakas laced a 2-run single with the bases loaded and 2 outs to put the Royals up 3-0. Lester wound up throwing 41 pitches in the 1st inning alone and with the Sox offense sputtering it would be all the Royals really needed.
Daniel Nava and Stephen Drew also
had errors in the game as the defense was sloppy all night.
Lester would settle down and get
through 7 innings to help out the bullpen.
He allowed only 4 hits and 3 runs though only 1 was earned. It was an outing that wasn’t all that bad
considering what happened in the first.
He struck out 4 and walked 2 on the night.
Rubby De La Rosa gave up 2 solo
homers in his one inning of work. He
didn’t look as sharp as he did in his first outing.
Hopefully the offense will show
up on Friday night as Jake Peavy will take the hill for his 2nd
start with the Red Sox. He’ll be opposed
by Ervin Santana who’s been having a great year so far.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Stephen Drew. Drew’s been here a lot lately with his recent
hitting surge. He went 2 for 4 with an
RBI on the night.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Shane Victorino. The Flying Hawaiian went 0 for 4 on the night
and had 2 weak pop-ups to the infield.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Jonny Gomes’ costly error in the
first that ended up turning into 3 runs.
If he catches that ball only 1 run scores in the inning.
NEXT
Friday, August 9th in Kansas City
vs. the Royals.
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