The Sox headed into Kansas City and won the first game of the series behind Buchholz’s strong start. Last night rookie Allen Webster took the mound against Ventura. Webster has struggled lately, but he seemed to get it together last night and was in line for the win. The outing also saw Koji Uehara take the mound and put the struggles of the last month behind him. Mujica got the save, but it was a huge step forward for Koji.
The Red Sox got on the scoreboard first when they scored 3 innings in the 3rd inning. Mookie Betts hit an RBI single to score Weeks and then the Royals defense helped the Sox score the next 2 runs. Cespedes reached on an infield single and then with a throwing error everyone moved up, including Betts scoring. The final run was scored when Ventura threw a wild pitch and Nava came to the plate. Sox 3-0. The Royals got two of those runs back in the 4th inning when Webster gave up a 2 run homerun to Fosmer. Sox 3-2.
In the 5th inning the Sox went back up by 2 runs when Nava hit an RBI single to score Weeks. Nava had been experiencing food poisoning, but it didn’t seem to effect his play at the plate last night. Sox 4-2. Webster pitched 6 strong innings and probably could have gone longer since he only threw 83 pitches, but Farrell decided to go with the bullpen. Tommy Layne came out to get one out in the 7th and then Burke Badenhop got the final two outs of the inning. Koji Uehara came out and pitched the 8th inning. Koji looked like vintage Koji last night. His splitting seemed to be doing its job and had a nice 1-2-3 inning with a K. Koji returned to his old, welcomed habit of going into the dugout after a scoreless 8th and high fiving any and everyone. Edward Mujica took to the mound in the 9th and secured his 6th save of the season.
Red Sox 4 Royals 2 BOXSCORE
WP: Webster (4-3) LP: Ventura (12-10) SV: Mujica (6)
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