Red Sox batter Kris Bubic and Kansas City Royals in series-ending loss at Boston
Kansas City Royals pitchers held the Boston Red Sox to two runs through the first two games of their weekend series in Boston. But Kris Bubic’s Fenway Park demons came back to haunt him Sunday.
Bubic didn’t make it through three innings, allowing five runs, and the Royals went on to lose 13-3 to the Red Sox in front of an announced 31,199 in the series finale at Fenway Park.
The Royals dropped the series with the loss and finish 1-5 on their road trip.
Bubic (2-13) gave up those five runs on seven hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings. The Red Sox put 10 men on base, including the leadoff batter of each inning, and utilized one sacrifice bunt and three sacrifice flies against Bubic.
Bubic has now allowed 10 runs on 11 hits and six walks in 6 2/3 innings over two career starts at Fenway Park. His only other start in Boston came last season.
Royals star slugger Salvador Perez went 2 for 4 and hit his team-leading 22nd home run of the season. Rookies Vinnie Pasquantino (2 for 4, double, RBI, walk) and Drew Waters (2 for 4, double) also had multi-hit afternoons.
Rookie outfielder Nate Eaton (0 for 2) had two walks, a stolen base and a run scored for the Royals (58-89). Royals hitters were 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and Kansas City stranded 10 men on base.
The Royals grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning after MJ Melendez reached via a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then, with two outs, Pasquantino hit an RBI double to the right-field wall.
Melendez and Pasquantino picked up where they left off on Saturday, when Melendez scored four times and Pasquantino registered three RBIs.
In the bottom of the first inning, Bubic appeared to pitch himself into an unwieldy situation as the Red Sox’ first three batters smacked hits, including an RBI double by Xander Bogaerts. The hosts tied the score before making an out.
Bubic then struck out J.D. Martinez and Rob Refsnyder and escaped the inning on a Christian Arroyo lineout. Bubic stranded two men in the inning and kept the score tied.
The teams traded runs in the second inning.
The Royals made Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta pay for a leadoff walk to Eaton when Waters hit an RBI double to center field. But the Red Sox made Bubic pay for a leadoff walk in the bottom half of the inning, courtesy of a Tommy Pham sacrifice fly.
Bubic’s outing came apart in a three-run third inning. The Red Sox (71-75) set the table on an infield single and a double to center field on a ball Waters lost in the sun. Both runners eventually scored on a successive sacrifice flies.
Then Bubic walked back-to-back batters and gave up an RBI single to Reese McGuire, the final batter Bubic faced.
Perez’s homer in the fifth made it a two-run game, 5-3, but the Royals’ bullpen gave up the final eight runs of the game, including two in the fifth, four in the sixth and two in the eighth.
The Red Sox collected nine two-out RBIs and hit nine doubles.
The Royals begin their final homestand of the season Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins at Kauffman Stadium. The starting pitching matchup will feature Twins right-hander Dylan Bundy (8-7, 4.68) against Royals right-hander Zack Greinke (4-9, 4.10).
