Garrett Crochet, Red Sox blow out Cole Ragans, Royals in 10-1 bonanza

Hours after the Boston Celtics rebounded from a frustrating loss two in fact with a - win over the New York Knicks the Red Sox did the same Whereas Friday night s series opener in Kansas City was a scoreless stalemate until the th Saturday was only a low-scoring affair for the home band The Red Sox blew out the Royals - snapping KC s seven-game win streak and handing them just their third loss in their last games The Boston bats had been woefully outmatched in their three previous meetings with Cole Ragans each time the Royals left-hander pitched at least innings struck out a minimum of seven issued no more than two walks and allowed no more than one earned run though the defense behind him yielded four unearned runs total in those games Last season the Royals won both of his starts against the Red Sox by at least four runs No such luck against the Red Sox on Saturday Ragans lasted just five innings and needed pitches to get through them He exited charged with four earned runs on seven hits two walks and eight strikeouts We had an aggressive plan on him catcher Carlos Narv ez explained NESN s Jahmai Webster postgame He s a nasty pitcher he s gonna make good pitches It was The Rafael Devers Show all night After plating the squad s lone run the night before the Sox slugger had his second four-hit match of the season He collected the first knock of the championship a one-out single in the opening frame which extended his hitting streak to three games and the hits just kept coming His th double of the season got Boston on the board in the first and he extended the lead to - with an RBI single in the fifth The American League s walks leader drew his th free pass of the season in the seventh and capped off his night with another RBI double in the eighth Devers led the way but his was just one of the association s five multi-hit performances in a -hit barrage Jarren Duran Alex Bregman and Ceddanne Rafaela had two hits apiece and Narv ez had a career-high three-hit competition with a two-run homer and a walk Trevor Story s struggles continued until they didn t After striking out in his first three at-bats the veteran shortstop who came into Saturday hitting with zero extra-base hits over his last games blasted a three-run homer to extend Boston s lead to - in the seventh After a drought of plate appearances he had his first extra-base hit since April Story s blast was Boston s MLB-leading th three-run homer No other club is in the double digits and no AL squad has more than seven The biggest difference though is that for the first time in years the Red Sox have an ace southpaw of their own Garrett Crochet outlasted Ragans by a full two innings In his fourth start of at least seven innings this season the Sox southpaw held the Royals to one earned run on seven hits one walk one balk and struck out nine on pitches strikes He allowed a new season-high in hits previously five but snapped his four-game streak of issuing multiple walks The bottom of the seventh was another reminder that isn t the Red Sox If any doubt remained that this is the ace Boston has been waiting for Crochet finished the seventh inning with a mph four-seamer to blow Bobby Witt Jr away and leave the diamond Royally flushed His four starts of at least seven innings are tied with Yankees Max Fried and Giants Logan Webb for the greater part in the Majors To be honest with you the present day was very short in the bullpen manager Alex Cora informed reporters referring to the lengthy battle the night before We needed six seven innings According to Stathead Crochet is the first Red Sox lefty to post an ERA of or better through his first nine starts of the season since Mel Parnell in He also joins Pedro Martinez as the only two pitchers to strike out at least batters and post a sub- ERA through their first nine starts with the club He s a beast Narv ez stated He makes my job way easier With the bullpen thin Liam Hendriks and Brennan Bernardino pitched an inning apiece to close out the win Injury updates The Red Sox placed utility man Romy Gonzalez on the -day injured list before Saturday s match and recalled Nick Sogard from Triple-A Cora pushed Walker Buehler s ETA back The righty who went on the injured list last weekend with bursitis in his pitching shoulder is now expected to pitch in the New York Mets series during the upcoming home stand