The Red Sox and Royals will settle their three-game weekend set Sunday afternoon with a pair of left-handers lined up to take the ball and a Boston club trying to keep building after a needed bounce-back win.
Boston moved to 81-68 with a 5-1 victory Saturday, evening the series and ending a three-game skid. Payton Tolle, 23, gets the start for the Red Sox and brings a 9-6 record and 3.15 ERA into a matchup with Kansas City’s Noah Cameron, who is 9-8 with a 3.93 ERA.
Heavy rain forced a delay in the start time, moving first pitch from 1:35 p.m. to 3:05 p.m.
The Red Sox needed the response after opening the series with a 3-2 loss Friday, when they went hitless with runners in scoring position. They turned that around in a big way Saturday, going 4-for-8 in those spots and pushing across the four go-ahead runs over their final three at-bats. Ranger Suarez backed that up with his second straight seven-inning outing.
Wilyer Abreu supplied the big swing with a two-run double in the sixth.
"It feels amazing (playing at Fenway Park)," Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu said. "Every time we're winning, the crowd's going crazy."
"It feels like these few days we've been waiting for a two-out hit," Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said. "We got that one swing, and all of a sudden, everyone takes a breath."
Tolle has been dealing lately and now gets Kansas City for the first time in his career. In his last outing, he struck out 12 over six innings of one-run, four-hit ball in a win over Baltimore last Sunday that completed a sweep.
"He's having fun out there," Tracy said. "Some guys are very intense, lock in when they start, and he has to have fun.
That's what makes him go. He's enjoying himself out there."
That kind of outing has become a theme for Tolle, who has reached double-digit strikeouts twice in his last six starts and three times this season.
Kansas City arrives having dropped five of its last eight, though Saturday brought a notable bright spot. Catcher Carter Jensen, a Kansas City native, tied the franchise's single-season rookie record with his 24th home run and extended his extra-base hit streak to 12 straight games, the longest by any rookie since 1961.
"That's a phenomenal record," Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. "We know that he's been on a tear here offensively as of late.
So good for him. Not only that, but it tied the game."
Cameron has also been giving Kansas City a chance. He has thrown shutout ball in three of his last five starts, including a complete game against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug.
- His most recent outing was another strong one: three hits allowed, seven strikeouts, and a scoreless game through nine innings before Arizona walked it off 5-4 in 10 on Monday.
"When you pitch like that, you deserve a win," Royals outfielder John Rave said of Cameron's last outing.
The Royals have been living on the edge in a few of those losses. Before arriving in Boston, three straight defeats had come by a combined four runs, including back-to-back extra-inning losses to Arizona.
There’s also a broader statistical contrast in this series: Kansas City has been held to one run or fewer in 26 games this season, while no team has done that to an opponent more often than the Red Sox, who have done it 38 times.
Kansas City did get a small injury-related lift Saturday when Jac Caglianone, sidelined with an elbow issue, pinch hit for the first time in a week.
"He felt better (on Saturday)," Quatraro said of the AL Player of the Month in August. "We'll have to make a decision on how we get him (in the lineup). It's certainly a good problem to have."
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