The Red Sox just keep on rolling.
Boston on Thursday earned a 15-1 victory at Fenway Park to complete a four-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals. The Red Sox now have won seven straight games, and have the most wins (51) in Major League Baseball.
(The San Francisco Giants, who play Thursday night, have 50 wins.)
Pitching, hitting and fielding all factored into the win for Alex Cora's club: Nathan Eovaldi turned in his second consecutive excellent outing; the offense produced four homers; the defense played error-free baseball until Marwin Gonzalez committed one with two outs in the ninth -- but still.
Boston improved to 51-31 with the victory, while Kansas City dropped to 33-47 with the loss.
Here's how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Beatdown
Just a thorough, all-around dominant performance against an inferior opponent.
ON THE BUMP
-- Eovaldi was superb, scattering five hits while walking none and striking out six over seven scoreless innings. The right-hander now is 9-4 with a 3.41 ERA.
Rookie Connor Wong has caught Eovaldi's last two starts. It likely won't be enough to keep Wong in the majors once backup catcher Kevin Plawecki is ready to come off the injured list, but the storyline nevertheless is worth following.
-- Matt Andriese pitched the final two innings, surrendering a run in the ninth.
IN THE BATTER'S BOX
-- Kiké Hernández got the party started with his third leadoff homer in five games. He now has nine homers on the season, and has played far better baseball since the middle of June.
-- The Red Sox broke the game open in the fourth inning. J.D. Martinez led off the frame with a homer, his third in his last five games, and Danny Santana later added popup-esque three-run homer into Boston's bullpen.
Take a look:
-- Royals reliever Ervin Santana replaced starter Kris Bubic to begin the fifth inning, which wound up being an embarrassing one for Kansas City.
After Hernández lined out to start the frame, Alex Verdugo singled, Martinez doubled and Xander Bogaerts was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Rafael Devers then singled home a pair of runs.
Hunter Renfroe grounded into the second out, but Marwin Gonzalez walked to reload the bases. A fluky infield single from Santana drove home the eighth run for the Red Sox, while a balk from Santana, with Connor Wong at the dish, brought in Boston's ninth run.
It was ugly.
-- The mauling continued in the seventh with Devers crushing a three-run homer, his 20th of the campaign.
-- Michael Chavis drove home Gonzalez in the seventh on a sacrifice fly.
-- Gonzalez drover home Devers in the eighth, giving him three hits and a walk in what might have been his finest offensive day of the season.
-- The Red Sox offense had 17 hits. Every member of the starting lineup had at least one hit.
-- Devers went 3-for-5 with five RBIs. He, Verdugo, Martinez, Gonzalez and Santana (also three hits) all had multi-hit days.
-- Wong picked up the second hit of his big league career.
-- The Red Sox topped their previous season-high of 14 runs.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Agreed on all points.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox will head out to California to face the Oakland Athletics in the first game of a six-game West Coast road trip. First pitch from RingCentral Coliseum is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET.
