Royals Report: KC Hitters Use 8-Run Inning To Crush Boston 10-4

The Royals blasted the Boston Red Sox 10-4 Sunday night at Fenway Park as Kansas City hitters scored eight runs in the sixth inning. KC won their seventh straight series with the win.

The Kansas City Royals improved to 68-62 by winning 10-4 on Sunday night. They pulled within 5.5 games behind AL Central leading Cleveland. Kansas City remains 3.0 games behind the Orioles for the second AL wild card. Boston fell to  72-58 and dropped to 2.0 games behind the Blue Jays in the AL East.

Kansas City Royals starter Yordano Ventura struggled with his command all night, but was pitching effectively through the first four innings. Staked to an early 2-0 lead on Salvaldor Perez’s solo shot and Paulo Orlando‘s sacrifice fly in the second, Ventura wobbled through the first three innings without giving up a run. However, he surrendered a solo home run to David Ortiz in the fourth and then got rather unlucky in the fifth.

First, third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert dropped a ball Boston’s Chris Young slapped down the line that Cuthbert got a glove on, but simply missed. The official scorer ruled the play a hit. But, had Cuthbert cleanly fielded the ball, he had a shot at an out. Then Paulo Orlando dropped a fly ball that hit his glove in deep center for a a two-base error to put men on second and third with no outs.

Jackie Bradley Jr. walked to load the bases. Brock Holt‘s ground out scored one run, and then Xander Bogaerts singled to center to plate two more. Suddenly, Ventura and the Royals fell behind 4-2 at the end of five.

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Kansas City then sent thirteen men to the plate in the top of the sixth in a marathon inning in which they plated a season-high eight runs. The key hit came from rookie Raul Mondesi Jr., who hit a bases-loaded triple off reliever Matt Barnes close to the 420 sign in dead center. Mondesi missed a grand slam by inches. That blow put the KC Royals up 6-4.

After Barnes hit Paulo Orlando with a pitch to put runners and first and third, Mondesi scored on CHeslor Cuthbert’s tapper to the mound. For some reason, Barnes went to home plate, but Mondesi beat the throw to score on a fielder’s choice. The Kansas City Royals then went on to score three more runs. The inning included a single and double by Kendrys Morales, and a walk and single from Eric Hosmer as 13 Kansas City hitters batted in the inning.

When the dust settled. the KC Royals led 10-4 and had taken complete control of the game.

Matt Strahm, who had helped Yordano Ventura escape Boston’s bizarre fifth with an inning-ending double play, pitched two more innings of shutout relief. Peter Moylan and Joakim Soria added single innings of scoreless ball to finish out the game.

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IN the end, the Royals showed once again that they play their best with the spotlight on them. They won on a night were AL rivals Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, and New York all lost. ESPN also broadcast the Red Sox/Royals match-up as their Sunday Night Baseball feature.