With Chris Sale and Trevor Story finally back, the Red Sox manage to go 5-2 in their last seven games at Fenway.
The hero of this game was shortstop Pablo Reyes. In the last game before Story returned to the position, Reyes scored or helped score all six runs. He scored on a sac fly for the first run by Masataka Yoshida, and scored again from a double by Connor Wong. The Royals managed to tie it, and Reyes hit a walk off grand slam to win the game.
The pitching by the Red Sox was also exemplary. Brayan Bello pitched an almost seven inning shutout, followed by Kenley Jansen in the ninth who pitched a perfect inning and got the win.
The Red Sox did ok for this game, with Nick Pivetta pitching five innings and only giving up two runs. Triston Casas blasted a homer in the second to the tie the game, and the Sox had a productive fourth inning which secured the win.
The most interesting thing in this game was not somebody scoring or getting out, but rather something that was considered impossible. In the top of the second, a Royals player hit a ground rule double into the Green Monster.
Due to its height it was thought impossible, but Kyle Isbel found a way. He hit the ball into the Monster through a light on the wall, which is consider a ground rule double.
The Red Sox were looking good in this game. However, by the middle of the game things fell apart. Kutter Crawford pitched a good three innings giving up only one run. The pitchers after him on the other hand did horribly.
The offense was no better either. Not scoring until the fifth inning put the Sox at a disadvantage, and cost them the game.
Embarrassed by the loss, the Sox take the last game of the series two to nothing. James Paxton threw an excellent game, throwing five shut out innings with six strikeouts. The next pitchers followed suit, and helped win the game.
In Sale’s first game back, he managed to show that he is still very dominant. In four innings, he threw a shutout and got seven strikeouts.
As for the offense, Story managed to get back on track after a horrible offensive showing during the KC series, going 2-4. Casas sealed the game with a three run bomb in the fourth, with Wong scoring a run in the sixth as a cherry on top.
The second game was another embarrassing loss for the Sox, once again due to pitching and slow offense. Bello started and gave up two runs in four innings. After him, multiple pitchers gave up multiple runs. The offense was slow this game as well.
The Red Sox come back from their loss to win the final game in the series 6-3. With home runs from Justin Turner and and Adam Duvall, the Red Sox took a commanding lead and never looked back. Story also had a historic game, going 4-4 and became the third Sox player in history to have two extra base hits and two steals in a game.
With Sale and Story seemingly back from the IL in prime form, they will head with the rest of the Sox to Washington to start the series on August 15.
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Featured Image courtesy of Nick Grace/Getty Images
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