The Twins have lost a season-worst 10 consecutive games heading into their series at first-place Cleveland.
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The loss was the fourth in the last five games for the Red Sox, who fell two games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. Boston (72-58) is a game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles for the first AL wild card.
“It unfortunately didn’t go the way I hoped”, said Barnes, who was charged with five runs and didn’t get an out.
Rodriguez, making his first start since leaving his August 16 outing at Baltimore due to hamstring rightness, was leading 4-2 entering the sixth, when the Royals rang up their biggest inning since August 5, 2013.
Boston’s David Ortiz opened the bottom half with a double – his 50th home extra base hit this season – and scored on Betts’ double to KO Andriese. Donaldson had his first three-homer game Sunday in a 9-6 win that gave Toronto a sweep of Minnesota.
Perez, who homered in his final at-bat Saturday, led off the second inning with his 20th of the season, one shy of matching last year’s career high.
Betts hit a towering shot off Rays righthander Matt Andriese into the Monster seats between the two light poles in the second inning.
The first batter Barnes faced – Alcides Escobar – hit a high chopper in front of the plate that Barnes had no play on to plate the first Royals run in the inning and then came the big blow when No. 9 batter Raul Mondesi cleared the bases with a three-run triple to right-center.
Boston capitalized on center fielder Paulo Orlando’s error to score three times off starter Yordano Ventura in the fifth. A four-pitch walk to Jackie Bradley Jr. loaded the bases, and Holt’s soft groundout tied the game.
Brock Holt had three hits and drove in two runs, Travis Shaw had three hits and Chris Young added a tiebreaking two-run double for Boston.
Strahm relieved and got Ortiz to hit into his second DP.
Rodriguez went five and a third innings, allowing five earned runs and four walks to one strikeout and four hits.
Andriese has fared well against Boston in his career, going 1-0 with a 1.72 ERA and 0.83 WHIP in four games (two starts) while limiting the Red Sox to a.193 average.Tampa Bay is looking to become the first team to defeat Porcello at home this season, as the 27-year-old is 12-0 with a 2.96 ERA in 13 starts at Fenway Park.
Porcello will face fellow right-hander Matt Andriese in a rematch of a game last Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
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Ventura’s rise has coincided with the rest of his team streaking up the standings, and he is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA in his last four starts. They will start against each other in the majors for the third time – and first since April 2013 – in the opener of a three-game series between AL West rivals. The Red Sox honored New England Olympians Tessa Gobbo, Eleanor Logan, Gevvie Stone (all rowing), Abbey D’Agostino (track, 5,000) Mike Hixon (diving) and Kayla Harrison (judo) before the game.
