Royals rout Red Sox 10-4 with a monster eight-run sixth inning

In the parlance of baseball scouts, Royals rookie second baseman Raul Mondesi has “80” speed, or at least something close. This is based on the traditional 20-to-80 scouting scale, which means that, by definition, Mondesi should profile as one of the fastest players in the game.

In some ways, of course, the “80” tag can be elusive and nebulous, maybe even a little antiquated. In the age of Statcast and advanced metrics and electronic timing, speed can be measured to the millisecond. So what exactly does “80” speed look like anyway?

Maybe there is no way to know exactly. But then there are moments like Sunday night at Fenway Park. Sixth inning. Bases loaded. Mondesi at the plate. Sometimes you just know speed when you see it.

In a 10-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox, a win that clinched another series victory and prolonged this wild August surge, Mondesi opened the floodgates with a bases-clearing triple off Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes during an eight-run sixth inning.

The triple traveled 406 feet — banging around in the triangle area of dead center-field — and turned a 4-3 deficit into a 6-4 lead. It also allowed Mondesi to turn on the after-burners and showcase his gift to the world. In just 11.2 seconds, he bounded around the bases, cruising into third base with ease. In the moments after he left the batter’s box, as the ball soared into the night, he began to think even bigger.

“I was going to try (to go home) but (third-base coach Mike Jirschele) stopped me,” Mondesi said. “But anytime I hit the ball in the gap, I think three.”

As he reached his destination, Royals manager Ned Yost peered up from his perch inside the third-base dugout. The Royals were barreling toward another road victory. A championship club once thought dead was marveling at the prodigious talents of a 21-year-old infielder. A sellout crowd of 37,337 sat stunned.

“He’s got all the tools in the world,” Yost said afterward.

The Royals scored eight times in the inning, pounding out six hits and drawing two walks. By the end, Kansas City had clinched its seventh straight series win, its longest streak since a run of eight straight series victories in the wild summer of 2014.

So here we are. On Aug. 5, the Royals sat just 51-58 after a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays at Kauffman Stadium. In those moments, the notion of a third straight postseason appearance was a pipe dream. Projections and statistical models gave the Royals around a 1 percent chance.

More than three weeks later, after a road trip through Miami and Boston, the Royals are 68-62. They have won 17 of 21 games since a praying mantis appeared in their dugout at Kauffman Stadium. They are 19-7 in August after going 7-19 in July. According to the latest projections from FiveThirtyEight.com, the chance of postseason baseball returning to Kansas City now rests at 24 percent.

“We’re playing good baseball,” Yost said.

The Royals sit just three games out of the second American League wild-card berth and 5  1/2 games behind first-place Cleveland in the Central Division. On an almost nightly basis, the Royals send a statement to the rest of the league.

Sunday night, they weathered a solo homer from David Ortiz and a 4-2 deficit after five innings. The Red Sox had taken the lead after a costly gaffe from Paulo Orlando in center field. With a man on first base and nobody out, Orlando whiffed on a deep drive to center. The error would lead to three runs and force starter Yordano Ventura from the game after 4  1/3 innings.

Orlando said after the game that he was too concerned about the runner tagging on the deep fly ball.

“I took my eye off the ball real quick,” Orlando said.

The Royals wouldn’t take long to strike back. Eric Hosmer opened the top of the sixth with a walk. Kendrys Morales followed with a double. Salvador Perez loaded the bases, drawing a crucial walk after battling in a long count. The line began to churn.

“We just kept it moving,” Yost said. “Salvy had a tremendous at-bat there, down 0-2 to get the walk. And I’m thinking, ‘OK, we need to do some damage now.’ ”

The scoring started when shortstop Alcides Escobar chopped an RBI infield single off home plate. That brought up Mondesi, who entered Sunday batting just .184 in 28 career games.

Mondesi saw one pitch from Barnes. He drilled a 98-mph fastball to the deepest part of the ballpark and took off in a dead sprint. Eleven-point-two seconds later, he was standing on third. Minutes later, the Royals had silenced Fenway Park with an eight-run inning, their largest since August 2014.

“I was looking fastball,” Mondesi said. “He throws hard. So looking fastball, and I got it.”

Monday night, the Royals return to Kauffman Stadium to open another crucial series against the New York Yankees (67-62). In the span of seven days, the homestand will offer tests against the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers sit one game ahead of the Royals in the standings.

Sunday night in Boston, a second-half freight train rolled on.

“If you’re going to have any kind of sustained winning streak, it’s got to be everybody,” Yost said. “It’s got to be a different guy every night.”

On Sunday, it was Mondesi, and in the moments after the game, the rookie sat in front of his locker in the cramped clubhouse. As the Royals prepared to fly home, an ESPN camera shot closeups of the Royals’ mascot, Rally Mantis Jr.. A few feet away, outfielder Jarrod Dyson commented on the absurdity of the scene.

"Y'all really think it's the bug?” Dyson said. “We might just not lift weights, hit or nothing."

Perhaps it is not all the bug. Perez had homered for a third time in two nights. Rookie reliever Matt Strahm was dominant again, earning the win. The Royals had delivered in Fenway Park.

“We’re starting to get hot as a team,” Hosmer said. “And it’s a good time to get hot.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 10:38 PM with the headline "Royals rout Red Sox 10-4 with a monster eight-run sixth inning."