Bats silent as Red Sox drop series opener to Royals for third consecutive loss

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

BOSTON — This week the MLB schedule presented the Red Sox with a golden opportunity to effectively lock up their playoff spot and potentially make one last push to catch the Yankees, with back-to-back home series against the last place Los Angeles Angels and Kansas City Royals.

It might not wind up mattering, but the Red Sox haven’t exactly capitalized.

The Red Sox lost their third straight game Friday, dropping a sleepy 3-2 affair to the Royals to fall to 1-3 on the current homestand. Kansas City took an early three-run lead against Red Sox veteran Sonny Gray, and the offense went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position while stranding eight runners on base.

Mickey Gasper led a two-run rally in the fifth inning with his ninth home run in 21 games, but outside of that the Red Sox couldn’t do much against a Royals pitching staff that entered the day with 4.88 runs allowed per game, the sixth-highest total in MLB.

The Royals wasted no time jumping Gray.

Carter Jensen greeted the Red Sox veteran with a leadoff double to start the game, and he scored on an RBI single by Salvador Perez shortly after.

Jensen extended the Royals lead in the third inning when he and Isaac Collins started the inning with back-to-back doubles, and Vinnie Pasquantino added an RBI single to give the Royals an early 3-0 lead.

Even several of the outs Gray drew were hit hard, and all told the Royals tagged him for 11 balls hit at 95 mph or harder according to Statcast.

The Red Sox got plenty of traffic against Royals starter Seth Lugo but for much of the night couldn’t capitalize. Boston left two runners on in both the first and second innings as well as a man at second in the bottom of the fourth.

But in the fifth the bats finally got going, and once again Gasper was leading the charge.

Gasper led off the fifth with a solo home run to the Red Sox bullpen. It was his ninth home run of the season, all of which have come since Aug. 17, putting him sixth on the team and giving him more homers this season than accomplished sluggers like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Marcell Ozuna, who have nearly 500 combined in their careers but only eight each in 2026.

Adley Rutschman followed Gasper by drawing his second walk of the night, and Wilyer Abreu won an eight-pitch battle to line an RBI double high off the Green Monster to cut the Red Sox deficit to 3-2.

Gray settled down after his rocky first three innings and wound up retiring seven straight batters from the fourth into the sixth before working his way out of one last jam. He finished with three runs allowed over six innings on six hits, two walks and five strikeouts, salvaging what looked like a potential dud into his 18th quality start of the season.

The Red Sox offense didn’t do much after their fifth-inning rally, but they made one last push in the bottom of the eighth.

Coming to the plate with one out and nobody on, Trevor Story smoked a hard line drive high off the Green Monster. The ball was hit so hard that the Royals were able to quickly get the ball back to second base, where Story looked dead to rights on what would have been a backbreaking outfield assist.

But Story was pulled off a brilliant slide to avoid the tag, which was confirmed on replay and put the tying run into scoring position for the Red Sox.

Story’s line drive would have been a home run in 20 of 30 MLB parks, and Nick Sogard’s ensuring flyout to right field — which advanced Story to third — would have also been out in 15 other parks. Unfortunately for Boston both stayed in the yard, so when Caleb Durbin struck out to end the inning the Red Sox came away with nothing.

The Red Sox bullpen stranded runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to keep it a one-run game, but Jarren Duran, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Roman Anthony went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.

The Red Sox (80-68) will look to snap their skid on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. Ranger Suarez (6-4, 3.44) is in line to start for Boston against Royals right-hander Randy Dobnak (3-3, 2.54).

Houck, Contreras latest

Tanner Houck made his second rehab appearance with the Portland Sea Dogs on Friday, throwing three innings and allowing one run on one hit, one walk and four strikeouts. He threw 48 pitches, 28 for strikes, and the lone run he allowed came on a double steal in the sixth inning.

Willson Contreras started his rehab assignment as well and went 2 for 4 with two RBIs. He will play first base for the Sea Dogs on Saturday, after which the Red Sox will assess whether or not to activate him on Sunday.