Dalbec leads Sox to rout over Royals
Batting ninth in lineup, 1st baseman has 3 hits, 3 RBIS for Boston
Light-hitting Bobby Dalbec had three RBIS and was a double short of a cycle, J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer and the Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 on Saturday.
Dalbec, Boston’s No. 9 hitter, singled in the second, put Boston ahead 2-1 in the fifth with his team-high third triple, was hit by a Jackson Kowar pitch in the seventh and hit a two-run homer in the ninth off Kowar.
Dalbec is 12-for-45 with four homers and 10 RBIS in his last 12 games, raising his average to .214 and OPS to .699. He has nine homers and 32 RBIS.
Martin Perez (5-4) allowed one run and three hits over five innings. Garrett Whitlock, Hirokazu Sawamura and Brandon Workman combined for four innings of four-hit shutout relief.
Brad Keller (6-7) lost his third straight start, giving up five runs, five hits and three walks in five innings.
Kansas City went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.
Kowar allowed two runs, three hits and two wild pitches in three innings, but the 24year-old rookie right-hander cut his ERA from 36.00 to 18.00 in three big league appearances.
Kansas City’s Whit Merrifield stole three bases, raising his major league-leading total to
20. But after swiping third base in the third inning with the score 1-1, he got caught off third on Salvador Perez’s comebacker and easily was tagged out in a rundown for the second out.
Xander Bogaerts had a runscoring single in the first, and Carlos Santana tied the score with an RBI grounder in the third.
Kiké Hernandez walked leading off the fifth and scored the go-ahead run on Dalbec’s triple. Danny Santana hit an RBI grounder, Alex Verdugo walked and Martinez made it 5-1 with his 14th homer.
Up next
RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7-3, 3.76 ERA) will take the mound for Boston in Sunday’s series finale against LHP Mike Minor (5-4, 4.63 ERA).