The Red Sox were coming off losing both games of a doubleheader and looking to get back to their winning ways. Felix Doubront was taking the mound for the Sox on a cold night at Fenway looking for his second win of the season.
Doubront was good, but not great. Doubront got himself in a little bit of trouble in the 2nd inning when former Sox Lowrie scored from 3rd on a wild pitch and then former Sox Reddick hit an RBI single to center. Sox 0-2. Luckily for Doubront, the Sox bats came to play and had his back throughout this cold night. Doubront struggled through the 5th as well. During the inning, Doubront gave up a single and issued 3 walks. He luckily only gave up one run on a sac fly from Young. Doubront seemed frustrated with the strike zone during this inning and it did look like he was not getting many calls which seemed to be right on the corners. In the end, Doubront got out of the inning when he got Lowrie to fly out. Phew. Doubront stayed in the game until he had 2 outs in the 7th. His pitching line for the night was 113 pitches, 3 H, 3 R, 5 BB and 8 Ks. Not bad, could have been worse, but also could have been a lot better.
The Sox bats on the other hand, they were on fire on this cold night. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Sox got their first run with an RBI double from Mike Napoli. In the 4th, the Sox would get the lead back for good with a 3 run HR from Will Middlebrooks. Sox 4-2. Middlebrooks has struggled at the plate lately, so that HR had to feel especially good. In the bottom of the 5th, the Sox broke this game wide open. Mike Napoli continued to be on fire at the plate and this time he hit a GRAND SLAM! Sox 8-3. Wowza. Salty added another run with an RBI double. Sox 9-3.
(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
Clayton Mortensen came into the game in the 7th and didn't have his best outing. Morty got the out in the 7th to end the inning, but was unable to get through the 8th. Mortensen gave up a 2 run RBI double to Donaldson and then another RBI double to Reddick. Sox 9-6. No bueno. Mortensen was out of the game and Alex Wilson was in. Wilson walked the only batter he faced and then the job of ending the inning was on to Junichi Tazawa. Taz got the two outs and we were all breathing a sigh of relief. Andrew Bailey took the mound in the 9th and while he walked the first batter of the inning, he easily snagged his 4th save of the season.
Nice to see that Dirty Water at Fenway again!
Red Sox 9 Royals 6 BOXSCORE
WP: Doubront (2-0) LP: Griffin (2-1) SV: Bailey (4)
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