The Boston Red Sox — not the Kansas City Royals — looked like the team full of American League All-Stars on Sunday.
The Red Sox broke out the whooping sticks in their series finale against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. Boston compiled 16 hits, including three homers, eight doubles and two triples, in a 13-2 win.
While Saturday’s 7-4 loss, in which the Red Sox blew a three-run lead, definitely stung, it’s hard to complain about taking two of three from the defending AL champions and a team positioned to send eight starters to the Midsummer Classic in Cincinnati. Sunday’s victory was impressive.
GAME IN A WORD
Extra.
The Red Sox clubbed 13 extra-base hits while producing their highest scoring output of the season. No team in Major League Baseball had more than 10 extra-base hits in a single game before Boston’s Father’s Day outburst.
Sunday marked just the second time all season the Red Sox scored at least 10 runs. They lost the other game, 13-10, on June 12 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park after blowing a seven-run lead.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
The Red Sox broke open the game with a huge fifth inning.
Hanley Ramirez crushed his 15th home run of the season in the second inning and David Ortiz added his 10th homer of 2015 in the fourth. But the Red Sox seized complete control of the contest in the fifth when they rode three hits and three walks to a five-run explosion.
Mookie Betts smoked a two-run homer — his eighth blast of the season — after Sandy Leon worked a one-out walk. Xander Bogaerts then cleared the bases with a three-run double after Dustin Pedroia, Ortiz and Ramirez reached consecutively with two outs.
Royals starter Chris Young had excellent numbers entering the game. He wasn’t fooling anyone.
ON THE BUMP
— Wade Miley is above .500 for the first time in a Red Sox uniform.
Miley improved to 7-6 with a solid effort. The left-hander tossed six shutout innings in which he allowed five hits, struck out two and walked three.
— Alexi Ogando and Junichi Tazawa combined for two scoreless innings.
— Koji Uehara surrendered two runs on three hits in the ninth. Lorenzo Cain’s two-out triple knocked home both runs.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Betts came up a single shy of the cycle. And it’s worth noting that shortstop Alcides Escobar retired Betts to begin the ballgame with an excellent barehanded play.
Betts doubled in the third, homered in the fifth, walked in the sixth and tripled in the eighth. He had an opportunity to grab a single in the ninth but flied out to center field on the first pitch he saw.
Betts had two RBIs and three runs scored.
— Brock Holt, who knows a thing or two about cycles, went 3-for-5 with a triple, two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored.
Holt’s average is up to .318.
— Pedroia, who went hitless in his return to the lineup Saturday, bounced back with a 3-for-5 effort. He finished with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored.
— Bogaerts had three doubles, including the bases-clearing two-bagger in the fifth. The shortstop received a rare off day Saturday, which appears to have helped him, among others.
— Alejandro De Aza and Mike Napoli weren’t able to party quite as much. Each went 0-for-5.
De Aza struck out three times.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Remember it like it was yesterday.
[tweet https://twitter.com/JMastrodonato/status/612729705100365824Â align=’center’%5D
UP NEXT
The Red Sox are off Monday, which should give third baseman Pablo Sandoval and catcher Blake Swihart extra time to recover from their respective injuries. Both players are considered day to day.
Boston will welcome the Baltimore Orioles to Fenway Park for three games starting Tuesday. Joe Kelly will face Ubaldo Jimenez in the series opener.
Thumbnail photo via Peter Aiken/USA TODAY Sports Images
