David DeJesus had two of Kansas City’s four hits and drove in two runs to lead the Royals to a 4-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday.
The Royals took advantage of the wildness of Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka to score three runs in the fifth inning. Matsuzaka (3-2) walked eight batters in the game, five coming in third, as Boston’s five-game winning streak came to an end.
Brian Bannister (4-3) picked up the win in allowing nine hits and three runs in six innings.
Three Royals relievers pitched perfect innings to close out the game and Joakim Soria got his 12th save.
With Boston leading 1-0 in the fifth, Matsuzaka, who took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in his last start, came undone. DeJesus singled to drive in one run. Jose Guillen drove in the second run with a bases-loaded walk and the Royals scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch to take a 3-1 lead.
Bill Hall homered for Boston in the bottom of the fifth to make it 3-2.
DeJesus stroked a double off the wall in the left to score Mike Aviles in the sixth and Boston closed out the scoring in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double by Jason Varitek.
Kansas City | Boston | |
Brian Bannister | Player | Daisuke Matsuzaka |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.0 | IP | 4.2 |
4 | Strikeouts | 1 |
9 | Hits | 2 |
4.50 | ERA | 5.79 |
Kansas City | Boston | |
David DeJesus | Player | J.D. Drew |
2 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
3 | TB | 3 |
.500 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Kansas City | 4 | 0 | 5 | .129 | 21 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 0 |
Boston | 9 | 1 | 13 | .250 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |