It also had been the longest by a Red Sox pitcher since Pedro Martinez did it over 44 starts.
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The Red Sox are also great on offense.
Boston snapped a three-game losing streak by rapping out 12 hits, including three home runs, and Dustin Pedroia just missed tying a record for consecutive at-bats with a hit in an 8-3 win over the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park.
“Obviously I can’t go too insane, I still had my first game in three weeks, I don’t want to go too insane thinking I’m out of the woods just yet, but with inflammation, it can come and go”, Wright said. Pedroia started the game 4-for-4, giving him hits in 11 straight at-bats, one shy of the Major League Baseball record.
A fan in the upper deck reached over the railing with his glove a foot or so and grabbed a foul ball behind home plate.
That was all the Kansas City Royals needed to spoil his return. “I try to not think about the at-bat before and move on to the next one”.
Xander Bogaerts homered and drove in three runs, and Mookie Betts and Hanley Ramirez hit consecutive homers for Boston. He had a real hot streak and what’s awesome to me is he keeps his bat in the zone for so long he can handle so many pitches.
“Whenever your name is up there with guys in black and white photos, it’s pretty special”, winning pitcher David Price said.
Even Royals manager Ned Yost could appreciate the run Pedroia was on. “He was kind of wild in the zone a little bit”. “I was going to the bathroom and heard them say it on TV”.
Catcher Salvador Perez homered twice for Kansas City (67-62), which had won 11 of its past 12 games.
Steven Wright was finally back in the rotation, but it wouldn’t be a happy reunion as he gave up 5 runs in the top of the 1st.
Bogaerts hit a 3-2 pitch into the parking lot across Lansdowne Street for a 2-0 Boston lead in the bottom of the first.
Boston Red Sox’s Mookie Betts, right, celebrates his solo home run with Sandy Leon (3) during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Boston, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016.
Duffy would manage just one scoreless inning in the third, but quickly went back to surrendering runs in the fourth, as Pedroia again struck to single home Chris Young. C Ryan Hanigan (left ankle tendinitis) started a rehab assignment with Double-A Portland on Saturday. Hanigan has been on the disabled list since August 6 (retroactive to August 5) with left ankle tendinitis. Although they allowed a ninth-inning run Friday, the Royals bullpen had a streak of 41 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball – a franchise record. Boston OF Jackie Bradley Jr. was dropped to ninth in the batting order Saturday. The Red Sox were 17-9 in games that Bradley batted ninth before he began regularly hitting higher in the order.
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Wright lost despite going at least six innings for the 10th time in 15 starts.
