Red Sox Relieved To Catch ‘Lucky Break’ On Strange Play Vs. Royals

The margin of victory for the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night against the Kansas City Royals was incredibly narrow.

The Red Sox notched a 4-3 win, but the Royals came close to forcing Boston to do more after Kansas City had a run taken off the scoreboard thanks to one of the most bizarre plays ever seen at Fenway Park.

It came in the top of the third inning when Kyle Isbel’s liner went over the head of a leaping Masataka Yoshida and headed toward the Green Monster. But instead of the ball caroming off the wall, it landed in the first out light fixture on the scoreboard at the base of the wall.

Yoshida couldn’t locate the ball while Matt Duffy motored home all the way from first. Once a very perplexed Yoshida found the ball hiding in the fixture, the play was dead, resulting in an automatic ground-rule double and forcing Isbel back to third.

Nick Pivetta got the next batter in Maikel Garcia to flyout to get out of the inning and allow the Red Sox to keep the Royals from scoring in strange fashion.

“I was like, ‘Finally, something going our way, I guess,'” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “I’ve never seen that. Not even in BP. We go over the rules and they always talk about if the ball gets stuck in the Monster. And I’m like, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ But it did.”

Yoshida breathed a sigh of relief, too, as panic begin to set in with him looking all over for the ball.

“A little bit because I couldn’t find the ball,” Yoshida said through a translator, as seen on NESN postgame coverage.

Pivetta, who earned the win after allowing two runs on four hits with two walks while striking out eight in five innings, was in agreement with Cora that the Red Sox had some good fortune with the way things turned out on the play.

“I thought maybe it hit off him and then got stuck underneath the Monster or something,” Pivetta told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “I didn’t realize that it went through the light, I guess. I think it was a fortunate break. … I thought it was kind of a lucky break to be honest with you.”