Red Sox Turning Page With New Approach After ‘Awful’ Night

There is absolutely no excuse for how the Boston Red Sox looked Friday night against the Kansas City Royals.

Boston was primed to bounce back at Kauffman Stadium in its series-opener with Kansas City but instead fell flat. The Red Sox lost their fifth consecutive game, allowing Royals starter Jordan Lyles to strike out seven over eight innings while giving up just two runs on four hits.

Yes, that Jordan Lyles. The same guy who entered Friday with a 3-15 record and a 6.51 ERA.

It was a performance poor enough to produce the word "awful" as a descriptor.

"To only put up two runs, it's awful from an offensive standpoint," Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo said, per Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe. "We could have had better at-bats. We could have really seen what Lyles was doing out there and how he was pitching a lot of the guys and made a couple of adjustments."

The loss put Boston as far back in the American League Wild-Card standings as they've been in a while, leaving them 6.5 games behind the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox are of the belief that they can kick things into gear, however.

"We have a lot of professionals, a lot of vets and guys that know how to bounce back from this," Verdugo said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "This is just one game, chalk it up and get ready for (Saturday)."

The Red Sox look to snap their losing streak Saturday against the Royals. First pitch from Kauffman Stadium is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.