Bob Dutton's vlog | Royals 3, Red Sox 6
BOSTON | This series at Fenway Park can’t end soon enough for the Royals. Wednesday night brought more frustration — meaning another feeble offensive display — in a 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox.
That makes three straight losses in a four-game series that concludes this afternoon with unbeaten Daisuke Matsuzaka as the awaiting mound opponent.
That hardly seems encouraging — does it? — after watching the Royals suffer a no-hitter Monday by Jon Lester and manage little the next two games against minor-league callups.
“It doesn’t really matter who’s pitching,” center fielder Joey Gathright said. “They have a lineup that can compete with any team. This is a good team. You’ve got to come out and be on top of your game in order to beat these guys.”
That hasn’t happened.
The Royals faced veteran Bartolo Colon on Wednesday in his 2008 debut after three tune-up starts at Class AAA Pawtucket. Boston signed Colon, 35, on Feb. 25 after he battled injuries the last two years with the Angels after winning the 2005 Cy Young Award.
“I was very nervous in the first inning,” he said. “It felt like my first professional outing, actually. But after the first inning, I was able to settle down and really enjoy the moment.”
This wasn’t a Cy Young Colon, but it was good enough. He gave up two runs and six hits in five innings before handing a three-run lead to the bullpen.
“I thought there were some early misfires,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “But for the majority of pitches, he commanded. It’s been a long road back for him, and I’d bet you he was excited about it.”
Craig Hansen, Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen and Mike Timlin closed out the victory by pitching one inning apiece. Timlin gave up one run in the ninth.
Colon’s outing came one day after rookie Justin Masterson limited the Royals to one run in 6 1/3 innings in a 2-1 victory over Gil Meche. The Red Sox optioned Masterson to Pawtucket to clear space for Colon.
“He’s Colon,” Gathright said. “He’s always been good. He spots his ball, and his ball moves. He threw harder back (in 2005), but he still has good stuff.”
Royals starter Brett Tomko seemed to steady himself after allowing a leadoff homer in the first inning to Jacoby Ellsbury. Tomko carried a 2-1 lead into the fifth, but he never made it out of the inning.
“It happened real fast,” he said. “It seems that when they get me, they piece together three or four hits in a row and it’s a big inning.”
Tomko, 2-5, yielded a game-tying homer to Jason Varitek with one out and three more hits in a row before departing. Boston had a 5-2 lead before Ron Mahay could end the inning.
“We scratched for two runs,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said, “and then gave it right back.”
Tomko gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings and saw his ERA jump to 5.76. The Royals never recovered from the four-run punch and fell to 21-25.
Boston finished with 12 hits, including three apiece from Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. Five different players drove in runs. It really didn’t matter that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were each zero for three and combined to strand five runners.
Gathright returned to the lineup after missing three games because of a sore left shoulder and went two for two with two walks. He scored all three runs. David DeJesus had three of the Royals’ seven hits.
The Royals countered Ellsbury’s homer with an RBI single by José Guillen in the third and took the lead in the fifth on Alex Gordon’s RBI single. After that, it was pretty much all Boston.
“We’ll line up again (today) and hope we get better offensive production,” Hillman said. “If we find a way to catch a lead, we’ve got to execute pitches.
“They’re a fine offensive club. Everyone knows that. If you miss, you’ve got to miss off the plate instead of out over the plate.”
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