The Kansas City Royals will try to accomplish something they haven’t been able to do in nearly three years when they face the visiting Boston Red Sox in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday.
Win a series.
Boston has won five consecutive series against the Royals dating back to Aug. 4-8, 2022, when Kansas City took three of four games.
The Royals won Friday’s series opener in walk-off fashion, 2-1, on Freddy Fermin’s line-drive RBI single with one out in the bottom of the 12th inning. For the Royals, that was their 16th win in 18 games and seventh in a row.
Boston, behind the pitching of Garrett Crochet and a 15-hit attack led by Rafael Devers, evened the series with a 10-1 victory on Saturday night.
Seth Lugo (3-3, 2.84 ERA), the runner-up for the American League’s Cy Young Award last season, gets the start for Kansas City on Sunday and will be opposed by fellow right-hander Lucas Giolito (0-1, 8.38 ERA).
Lugo has struggled in his career against the Red Sox, compiling an 0-3 record and 7.24 ERA in five career appearances (two starts). Both of those starts came last season when he lost 5-0 at Boston on July 13 and then garnered another loss on Aug. 6 in Kansas City, 6-5.
Giolito is 11-6 with a 3.60 ERA in 23 career starts against the Royals. He hasn’t faced them since 2023 because he underwent a surgical procedure for a partial tear of his right ulnar collateral ligament, which sidelined him for the 2024 season.
This will be Giolito’s third start since the surgery after beginning the season on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. He allowed three runs on five hits over six innings while striking out seven in his first start at Toronto on April 30 but struggled against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday at Fenway Park, allowing six runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings of a 6-1 loss.
“It was terrible,” Giolito said. “I gave up a bunch of hits in a row, just not doing my job. I didn’t have command; that was what probably did me in. I threw one slider, I bounced it, led to scoring a run and we kind of shied away from it. … They didn’t let me get away with mistakes.”
“It’s a tough one,” Boston manager Alex Cora said of the outing. “Just turn the page and be ready for the next one.”
Devers, who made headlines after reportedly calling out the front office for the suggestion he give a move to first base a try, went 4-for-4 with a double and three RBIs in Saturday’s win. It was his second four-hit game of the season and came just hours after Boston principal owner John Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow flew to Kansas City to meet with him.
Cora didn’t seemed too concerned about any lingering issues with his star.
“He knows how to cancel the noise,” Cora said.
Kansas City is looking forward to moving on from its most lopsided loss of the season after Crochet limited the Royals to just one run on seven hits over seven innings while striking out nine.
“He had it tonight. He’s an ace for a reason,” said Kansas City first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who had two hits. “He did a really nice job mixing speeds, mixing locations. I thought we fought against him, but it wasn’t enough tonight.”
–Field Level Media
