C4 Sports The Boston Globe THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019
Tuesday night game
At FenwayPark
KANSAS CITY AB RHBI BB SOAvg.
Merrifield 2b 4120 00.301
Gordon lfDozier rf 40003211 01.27110.280
Solerdh 2224 20.253
Cuthbert3b 4010 00.289
O’Hearn 1bStarling cf 41114000 01.17504.237
Viloria c4 00002 .235
Lopez ss 2000 10.221
Totals 31 67648
BOSTON AB RHBI BB SOAvg.
Betts rf 4000 11.280
Devers3b 411001 .3 21Martinez dhBenintendilf (^4120401101) 01.285.300
Holt ss4 01000 .310
Vázquezc4 02100 .284
MorelandChavis 2b1b 40104010 01.22200.263
Bradley cf 400000 .222
Totals 36 29215
Kansas City.......................000 213 000 — 6 7 0
Boston...............................001 000 010 — 2 9 0
LOB—K.C. 2, Boston8.2B—Devers (38), Marti-
nez (24), Vázquez(17).HR—Soler 2 (31), off Cash-
ner,off Cashner, O’Hearn(7), off Cashner.Run-
Vázqunersleft in scoringez, Moreland, Bradley).position—BostonRISP—K4 (Devers,ansas City
1 for 2, Boston 2 for 10.Runnersmoved up—Gor-
don, Chavis, Bradley.GIDP—O’Hearn 2.DP—Bos-
ton 2.
Kansas CityJunisW 7-10 IP HR 671114 ER BB SO NP ERA96 4.88
Lovelady 221101 35 5.40
Kennedy 100000113 .18
Boston IP HRER BB SO NP ERA
Cashner L 10-75‚ 76624 83 4.68
Taylor 1„ 00011 26 3.72
Walden 10001 0153.49
Hernandez 10000 3201.88
Inheritedrunners-scored—Taylor1-0.WP—
Cashner.Umpires—Home,BrianGorman;First,
Ryan Blakney; Second,Mark Carlson; Third, Tripp
Gibson.T—2:48.A—3 6,360(37,755).
HOWTHERUNSSCORED
THIRD INNING
RED SOX— Bettsstruckout. Devers doubledto
left. Martinezflied out to center. Benintendi sin-
gled to right, Devers scored. Holt singled to cen-
ter, Benintendi to third. Vázquezter. fliedout to cen-
FOURTHINNING
ROYALS — Merrifield flied out to right. Gordon
groundeered to left, Dozied out to short. Dozier walked.r scored. CuthbertSolergrouhom-nded
out to short.
FIFTHINNING
struckROYALS — O’Hearn homereout. Viloriagrounded out to short.d to right. StarlLopezing
grounded out, pitcher to first.
SIXTHINNING
ROYALS — Merrifield singled to left. On wild
pitch, Merrifieldto short, Merrifieldto seconto third. Dozierd. Gordonsingledgroundedto cen-out
ter, Merrifield scored.Solerhomered to left, Dozi-
er scored. Cuthbert singled to right.Taylorpitch-
ing. O’Hearnto shortto first,groundCuthberted into a double play, secondout.
EIGHTHINNING
RED SOX — Martinez hit a ground-ruledouble
to right. Benintendi lined out to left. Holt flied out
to left. Vázquezscored.Morelanddoubledstruckout.to center, Martinez
Royals 6, Red Sox 2
Sox-Royals halted in
10th in a downpour
The long delay was the out-
growthof a gamein whichthe
Red Sox alternately erased and
fumbled two-run leads.Starter
EduardoRodriguez struggled
to navigate the earlyinnings,
his relationship with the strike
zoneseeminglydistrustful. In
the first inning, he tiptoed
througha bases-loaded jam cre-
ated by a pair of singlesand a
walkby getting an inning-end-
ing groundoutfromNicky Lo-
pez, and stranded another run-
ner in the second.
But Rodriguez lost his bal-
ance with two outs in the third,
issuing back-to-back bases-
empty, two-out walks. Unable
to finishopposing hitters with
two strikes, Rodriguez — who
had just one strikeout — then
alloweda singleon an 0-2
countto Lopez and then,with
no margin for error, fell behind
Meibrys Viloria,3-1.
Viloria sat on a fastball, and
so was on time whenRodriguez
offeredone at 95 m.p.h.near
the bottom of the zone. A well-
placed grounder up the middle
delivereda pair of runs, and
thoughRodriguez escapedthe
inningwithoutfurther damage,
he sat at an exhausting 76
pitches (tied for the most by a
Sox starting pitcher through
three innings this year)
through three frames.
“Eddie wasa little wild
around the edges of the strike
zone,” said Cora. “Today was a
grindfor him.”
Yet overthe next two in-
nings, he re-established his
willingnessto attack in the
strike zone, an approach that
that proved wise given the sup-
port of his outfield. While Billy
Hamiltonprovedcapableof us-
ing his speed to reach base on
an infieldsingle and advanced
to second with his 18th steal,
he erred in thinking he could
outrunthe arm of Jackie Brad-
ley Jr.
Hamiltonattemptedto ad-
vance to thirdon a WhitMerri-
field flyballto medium depthin
center. Bradley linedup the ball
perfectly a fireda one-hop
throwto third,cutting down
the speedster for a double play
(Bradley’s ninthassist of the
year, tied for secondin the AL)
that awakeneda ballparkand a
teamthat had beendormant.
“It wasn’t even close,” said
Cora. “That was electric. That’s
what he brings to the table. The
offense goes up and downbut
the defenseis always there.”
Down 2-0, a dormant Red
Sox offense woke up in the
fourth inningwhenJ.D. Marti-
uREDSOX
Continued fromPageC1
nez destroyedan 0-1 slider
fromGlennSparkman and sent
a moonshotoff to the backof
the Monster Seats in left-center
for his 25th homer of the year.
Rodriguez thensustained
the momentum,navigating a
scoreless fifth inning in 12
pitches. That quickframe per-
mitted the Sox lineup to keep
Sparkmanon his heelsin the
fifth. A one-outsingleby Mook-
ie Betts and walk by RafaelDe-
vers setting up Xander Bo-
gaerts, who uncharacteristical-
ly jumped on a first-pitch
fastball and ripped a two-run
double down the left-field line,
giving the Sox a 4-2 lead and
knockingSparkman fromthe
game. But the Sox coulddo no
more, as a quartet of Royals re-
lievers didn’t allow a run over
the next 4‚ innings.
Rodriguez, who threw 101
pitches in five innings,gave
way to Darwinzon Hernandez.
The flamethrowingrookie
struckout the first two batters
of the inning, but then got ding-
ed for a doubleby Hamitonand
a run-scoring single by Merri-
field — the only run that Her-
nandezhas allowedin 10 in-
ningsout of the bullpen since
his mid-July callup— that nar-
rowedthe gap to 4-3.
NateEovaldienteredinthe
seventh,allowing a pairof
groundball hits — one by Hunt-
er Dozier to lead off the inning,
and anothera 12-hopperby Lo-
pez that glancedoff the gloveof
diving second baseman Brock
Holt and into shallowcenterfor
a game-tyingdouble.Eovaldi
was charged with a blown save,
the 21st of the seasonby Red
Sox pitchers— second-most of
any AL team.
Eovaldireturnedfor the
eighthon a night that he
showed an electrifying arsenal
— a high-90s fastball,a mid-
90s cutter, as well as a splitter
and curveball that elicited
swings-and-misses.In his first
multi-inningoutingsincere-
turning from the injured list as
a reliever, the righthander
struck out five batters in two in-
nings.
BrandonWorkman followed
with a scorelessninth, but
when the Sox went scorelessin
the ninthagainst Jake Newber-
ry, the gamerolledinto extras
— whereTaylor threw three
pitches before a massive down-
pourfinallyforceda delay at
10:47p.m.
Withthe Rays and A’s al-
ready having lost, the Red Sox
moved a half-game closer to
both Tampa Bay (6 games) and
Oakland (5½ games) for the
secondand last wild-cardspot.
Cora may shuffle
his ailing rotation
By Alex Speier
GLOBE STAFF
Change may comenext
weekto the Red Sox rotation.
Withthe team’s starters
having forged
a 5.08 ERA
through 116
games— and
amidst a 10-gamerun in which
the rotation owneda 9.50 ERA
while givingup 3.2 homersper
nine innings— managerAlex
Coraacknowledged that he and
his coaching staff are consider-
ing alterations to the five-man
group. Thoughthe Red Sox
won’t considerchange in the
middleof their currentstretch
of 34 gamesin 34 days, once
the teamgets past its off-day
next Thursday, Cora left open
the door to “creative” altera-
tions to how he uses starters
Chris Sale,DavidPrice,Rick
Porcello,EduardoRodriguez,
andAndrewCashner.
“There’s ideas,” said Cora,
who clarified that therehas
beenno talk of usingany of his
relievers — includingstarters-
turned-relieversDarwinzon
HernandezandNate Eovaldi—
as openers.“As far as wherethe
schedule is rightnow, it’s kind
of toughto be creative....
Then the off-days will comebe-
causeof interleague,[and]we
mightget creative at that time.”
Cora said that he and the
Red Sox coachingstaff are
open-mindedaboutthe possi-
bility of either piggybacking
starters with shorter stints in
the samegame(thusreducing
the numberof timespitchers
mighthave to face opposing
lineups) or skippingstarters.
“I’m opento it,” Cora said,
before Wednesday night’s 4-4
gamewas suspended in the
10th inningby heavy down-
powers. “But we’ll sit down
with thembefore we make a
decision, obviously.”
Red Sox starters have sur-
renderedsix or moreruns 20
timesthis year, tied for the
fourth most in the majors.The
teamis 31-11(.738)whenre-
ceivinga quality start, but just
29-45(.392) whenfailingto get
an outingof six-plus innings
and threeor fewer earnedruns.
A shot in thearm
RighthanderSteven
Wright,on the injuredlist
sincetaking a lineroff the big
toe last month, receiveda plas-
ma-rich platelet (PRP)injec-
tion in his elbow fromDr.
JamesAndrews.
“Hopefully he can bounce
backsoonerrather than later
and let’s see whereit takes us,
if he can comebackthis year,”
Cora said of Wright (0-1, 6.53
ERA in six gamesspanning6‚
innings).
Wright received his shot one
day after fellow relieverHeath
Hembreereceived a similar in-
jection in his pitchingelbow —
thoughHembreereceivedhis
shot not on the ligamentbut
instead on the outsideof his el-
bow.
“I was basically pitching
with a sprainedelbow, proba-
bly the sameas sprainingan
ankleand trying to play on it,”
said Hembree, who notedthat
his ulnarcollateral (Tommy
John) ligamentwas “rock sol-
id” in a recentMRI.“It’s kind
of a weirdspot on the outside.
It’s kind of common with a
straight-armfall.... It’s noth-
ing that’s concerning in the fu-
ture.It’s just somethingthat
we had to get taken care of
now.”
Hembreeexpressed hope
that rest will allowthe inflam-
mation in his elbow to subside
and permithim to pitchagain
this season.
“If everythinggoes accord-
ing to plan and everything goes
smoothwith what we expect,
I’ll be backwith a coupleweeks
to go in the season,” said Hem-
bree,who landedon the in-
juredlist last week.“That’s
what I’m going to shoot for, but
I’m going to take it smart, and
I’m going to get it taken care
of.”
Onto Williamsport
Major LeagueBaseballan-
nouncedWednesday that the
Red Sox will play the Baltimore
Oriolesin the fourth version of
the Little LeagueClassicin Wil-
liamsport, Pa., next season.
The gamewill be Aug. 23 at
7:05 p.m. at Bowman Field, the
homeof the Class A Philliesaf-
filiate that held 2,429 fans for
last season’s gamebetween the
Mets and Phillies. It will be a
homegamefor the Orioles.
The event started in 2017
with the Cardinalsplaying the
Pirates. The Cubsand Pirates
will play on Aug. 18 this sea-
son.
Traditionally, most of the
fans will be players and fami-
lies takingpart in the Little
LeagueWorld Series. The ma-
jor leagueplayers are expected
to attend LLWS gamesearlier
in the day.
“My brother [Pirates third
base coachJoey Cora] was part
of it and it’s a good all-around
experience,” Alex Cora said. “In
the beginningit lookskind of
like hectic with the traveling.
But whenyou get thereand
you showup early and you
spend time with the kids, it
was somethingthat the Pirates
and the Cardinals,they loved.
It was fun.
“Looking forwardto it. It’s
somethingdifferent.”
Sox for Socks
From Friday throughSun-
day, the Red Sox Foundation
will conduct its 14th annual
“Sox for Socks” drive, collecting
new, white athletic socksat
Fenway gates before and dur-
ing gamesfor distributionto
Boston’s homelessby the Bos-
ton Health Care for the Home-
less Program... Sunday’s Red
Sox-Angels gamewill be tele-
vised nationally on TBS... The
Red Sox took theirteamphoto
on Wednesday afternoon. All
members of the roster — except
forDustinPedroia(recovering
from surgery in Arizona),
Wright, andSteve Pearce(re-
habbingin Fort Myers) — were
present.
PeterAbrahamof theGlobe
staff contributedto thisreport.
AlexSpeier canbe reachedat
[email protected]
himon twitterat @alexspeier.
RED SOX
NOTEBOOK
JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF
Amida poolof standingwater, Fenway’s grounds crew worked to secure the infield tarp withsandbagswhenthe gamewas suspendedin the 10th after heavy downpourshit the area.
JIM DAVIS/GLOBESTAFF
Andrew Benintenditookcoverin the 10th as a downpour
drenchedFenway Park, forcingthe game’s suspension.