The 27-year-old has been effective out of the bullpen for the Red Sox in 2016 with a 2.40 ERA in 41.1 innings of work.
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Red Sox knuckleballer Steven Wright will come off the disabled list to start against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park Friday night.
It’s just the way it did that bothered him.
The Red Sox, who lead the league in runs scored, had scored seven runs during their three losses prior to Saturday when they beat hot Royals starter Danny Duffy.
“So I was like ‘OK, the same is going to go for us.’ If we can get Ian through the first inning, he’ll be fine”. “I was supposed to pitch that game. No, I don’t ever expect to do something like that”. “Was wild in the zone a little bit”. Boston went 7-4 on its 11-game road trip after ending the trek with consecutive one-run losses at Tampa Bay.Wright hurt his shoulder diving into a base as a pinch runner two days after tossing his first career shutout to earn his 13th victory.
“I didn’t make pitches when I needed to”, he said. Then they smashed the ball with the count in their favor. “But I felt good”.
Mookie Betts went 5-for-5 with two RBIs and Dustin Pedroia went 4-for-4 and drove in one run but the Red Sox (71-57), who lead baseball in runs scored and most other major offensive categories, left 12 men on base and lost their third straight. The Royals had a 1.19 ERA in their past 10 games and a 2.26 ERA in August before Friday.Kennedy’s streak of five straight starts going at least six innings and allowing one or no runs ended, but he was still strong against the Red Sox.
The Red Sox, though, had already given him enough runs to match that, and wouldn’t take long to recover from his second-inning struggles. After Hill was retired, Jackie Bradley Jr. came up and roped an RBI double, giving Boston a 3-2 lead.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Betts delivered an RBI single but Kelvin Herrera extinguished the Red Sox rally for his 10th save. He then bounced into the double play in the eighth.
Betts hit his 29th, a solo shot, in the fifth and Ramirez followed with his two pitches later to almost the same spot, two rows into the Monster seats about three fans apart. The Red Sox lead the majors in batting average, OPS and runs per game. C Ryan Hanigan (left ankle tendinitis) started a rehab assignment with Double-A Portland on Saturday.
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David Ortiz played his 2,000 game as a DH (1721 for Boston, 279 Minnesota), most ever in the big leagues. Harold Baines (1980-2001) is next with 1,643. The center fielder went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts Friday night and in the month of August he’s batting.166 with just six extra-base hits and 32 strikeouts. The right-hander allowed two earned runs over 12 1/3 innings in two spot starts before Wright’s return.RHP Koji Uehara, who has been on the DL since July 20 with a right pectoral strain, threw a 50-pitch bullpen session Friday. The lefty was scratched the night before his scheduled start last Sunday.
