Lucas Giolito’s gem, Rafael Devers’ 440-ft HR power Red Sox past Royals 3-1

Taking their biggest test of the season in this weekend s road series with the Kansas City Royals the Red Sox passed with flying colors The Royals came into Saturday on a seven-game winning streak with only two losses in their previous games and without back-to-back losses since April but it was the Red Sox who took the series two games to one After losing the opener - in the th inning Boston rebounded with a - supremacy on Saturday and - clincher on Sunday A pair of top-four AL Cy Young finalists Cole Ragans fourth and Seth Lugo second started for the Royals in the second and third games but they were out-pitched by three newcomers to Boston s rotation Rookie Hunter Dobbins ace southpaw Garrett Crochet and the recently-returned Lucas Giolito combined for innings at least six apiece and just one earned run The pitching staff as a whole they were amazing lauded manager Alex Cora With the exception of his former home field on Chicago s South Side Giolito has spent more time on the Kauffman Stadium mound than any other ballpark The Red Sox right-hander entered Sunday s series finale with a ERA over career starts innings in Kansas City making it the perfect place for him to rebound from his last start a -inning struggle he d described as a step back Indeed in his longest start since Sept Giolito held the Royals to one unearned run on two hits one walk and struck out five over innings His velocity topped out at mph and he induced swings-and-misses among his pitches for strikes Better mix better command fastball was a little bit harder mph but I think it was the mix of the pitches Cora declared of his starter The last two days we were banged up in the bullpen What you saw is perhaps what we had and both of them Crochet and Gio gave us more than enough Aside from a long third inning Giolito breezed through the afternoon He opened with back-to-back - - innings When the Royals sent six men to the plate in the third the Sox starter managed to limit the damage Drew Waters led off with a single Luke Maile followed with a walk and Kyle Isbel s sacrifice bunt gave the Royals a - lead when Giolito made a throwing error Undeterred Giolito got the next three batters in order to strand runners on the corners After the miscue he retired seven batters before giving up a single to Maile and promptly erasing it by getting Isbel to ground into an inning-ending double play All notified he set the Royals down - - in five of his six full innings and recorded the first two outs of the seventh before Justin Wilson got Mark Canha to line out on the first pitch to complete yet another orderly frame We got to work we made adjustments with the slider Giolito advised reporters making sure to credit his coaches and catcher Carlos Narv ez who s rapidly become integral to the pitching staff s success Narvy was fantastic behind the plate again After knocking Ragans around for five innings on Saturday the Boston bats didn t make it easy for Lugo either The Cy Young runner-up lasted six innings but allowed three earned runs on six hits including Wilyer Abreu s game-tying solo home run and Rafael Devers go-ahead two-run shot in the sixth One of two players without a knock in Saturday s -hit Boston bonanza Abreu was Boston s preponderance productive bat in Sunday s series finale He snapped an for skid with a leadoff single in the second tied the competition with his th home run in the fourth a -footer tying the second-furthest hits of his career and made it a three-hit day with another leadoff single in the ninth Related Articles MLB notes What external options could Red Sox have at first base Garrett Crochet Red Sox blow out Cole Ragans Royals in - bonanza Cerullo Rafael Devers missing opportunity to lift Red Sox up Red Sox blow lead in extras lose to Royals - in innings Top Red Sox bosses flew to Kansas City to meet with Rafael Devers Each of Abreu s first two hits as well as Trevor Story s third-inning single came with two strikes The Red Sox entered the contest with two-strike hits tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for majority in the majors The biggest hit however belonged to Boston s blaster WIth Jarren Duran on first with a one-out single in the sixth Devers demolished Lugo s first pitch a mph four-seamer Hurtling feet to dead-center at mph it may have been the Red Sox s furthest hit of the season but it was still only tied for th in Devers career feet on June vs Blue Jays Kevin Gausman Just another day Cora disclosed of Devers latest powerful performance He s swinging the bat well he s in a good spot just seeing the ball well executing his tournament plan which is very essential and that ball was demolished Over the three-game series Devers hit with a OPS seven hits six RBI two walks a double and a home run He has three multi-hit performances in his last four games He s maybe the best DH in the American League right now Cora stated The Red Sox out-hit the Royals - Wilson Greg Weissert and Aroldis Chapman ensured Giolito s gem would be rewarded with his first win of the year Facing Chapman a former Royal in the ninth the home company looked poised for a rally but only briefly Vinnie Pasquantino reached on a fielding error by second baseman David Hamilton and Salvador Perez singled to put runners on first and second with one out With help from his defense Chapman recovered Maikel Garcia lined out sharply to left where Duran made a tremendous grab and newly-recalled newly-minted first baseman Nick Sogard caught Canha s pop-up in foul territory to bring the series to an end Too often over the last limited years the Red Sox have struggled to dispatch bad teams Last year s - series split with the -loss White Sox comes to mind This weekend however they more than held their own against what could very well be a postseason opponent It s exactly the kind of confidence-building weekend the Red Sox need as they head to Detroit for their next big test three games against the white-hot Tigers with reigning Cy Young Tarik Skubal on the mound Wednesday