How the Kansas City Royals, thanks to Freddy Fermin, beat Boston in series opener
Freddy Fermin played the part of Royals hero Friday night.
The catcher drove in the winning run in the 12th inning as Kansas City opened a weekend series against the Boston Red Sox with a 2-1 victory in 12 innings at Kauffman Stadium.
The torrid Royals (24-16) have now won seven straight games, 10 of their last 11 and 16 of their last 18.
Runs were hard to come by in this one until Fermin laced the game-winning walkoff hit to left-center, scoring Michael Massey from third base.
“Like I say all the time,” Fermin said, “be focused, stay in the plan. If I see something up I could hit the ball really well up the middle, and we won.”
A day after pummeling the Chicago White Sox for 17 hits in a 10-0 shutout, the Royals found life at the plate more difficult against rookie Red Sox starter Hunter Dobbins.
The 25-year-old right-hander scattered five hits across six innings, striking out six in just his fourth big-league start.
Second baseman Massey and centerfielder Kyle Isbel were the only Royals to gather more than one hit on Friday. Isbel went 2 for 3, Massey 2 for 4.
Dobbins drew 13 whiffs, the most the Royals have had in a game since April 27 against the Astros’ Hunter Brown (12). The movement on Dobbins’ slider was particularly tricky, generating five of those 13 swings-and-misses.
“He was good,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said of Dobbins. “He did a nice job. He’s got an interesting arm slot that took a little bit of time to not necessarily get used to, but just being able to see. I thought he did a really nice job; he used all his pitches effectively.”
For the third consecutive game, a Royals starting pitcher was able to throw seven innings, and that helped a lot. Right-hander Michael Lorenzen limited the Red Sox (20-20) to just three hits, striking out seven in seven shutout frames.
“That was the most I’ve seen him attack,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.
Quatraro specifically noted Lorenzen’s changeup, which generated 11 swings-and-misses. He induced 17 whiffs in all.
“It was good,” Lorenzen said of the pitch. “I got a lot more swing-and-miss on it tonight than all year.”
The scoreboard read zeros until the top of the 11th, when Boston scored its only run — Rafael Devers drove home teammate Ceddanne Rafaela.
But the Royals would counter.
Pasquantino singled to right field to score Drew Waters, sending the game to the 12th and deciding inning.
With the game going to extras, the Royals needed their bullpen to come through. KC sent five relievers to the mound, with the final one — Steven Cruz, in his first season with the Royals — pitching the final two outs for his first victory of the year.
Next up: Game 2 of the weekend series is Saturday, with first pitch at 6:10 p.m. Central Time. Left-handed pitcher Cole Ragans has the start for the Royals vs. Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet.
Kyle Wright rehab assignment update
Kyle Wright has hit a bump on his road to recovery.
The Royals announced Friday that they’re pulling Wright from his rehab assignment at Double-A Northwest Arkansas because the pitcher is experiencing some shoulder fatigue.
The right-hander has missed the last 18 months while recovering from shoulder surgery and is yet to make his Royals debut. But KC officials remain optimistic about his progress.
“I don’t think we believe its serious at all,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He had some tightness, pitch count was getting up the other day, probably some fatigue ... It’s not unexpected in a rehab assignment to have a little hiccup.”
Wright made his first rehab start earlier this month, pitching four strong innings with four strikeouts and allowing just one run. However, some regression was evident in his Wednesday start for the Naturals, when he allowed four earned runs in just two innings.
Quatraro noted that Wright was able to play catch on Friday.
“Really fortunate that there isn’t anything seriously wrong,” Quatraro said. “Just pushing back a start, possibly two at most, and get back out there.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2025 at 10:10 PM.
