Red Sox rout Royals, 13-2

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Boston Red Sox had home-run power, gap power, and every other kind of power that can be displayed in a 13-2 rout of the Royals before 37,975 on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.

They hit for the team cycle with three home runs, two triples, eight doubles and three singles, and Mookie Betts nearly achieved the feat, lacking only a single.

Much of the damage, and all of the home runs, was absorbed by Chris Young, who had been the Royals’ top starter since joining the rotation in May.

“I needed to be better than I was,” Young said. “I didn’t give the team a chance, and it’s disappointing. Over the course of the season, you’re going to have a few of them. It’s not enjoyable by any means.”

Young could live with the first two home runs. Hanley Ramirez hit a moon shot to left in the second, and David Ortiz’s blast in the fourth was career No. 476, passing Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for No. 29 on baseball’s career home-run list. Both came with nobody on base.

“Chances are the two solo home runs don’t beat you,” Young said, but he couldn’t contain the trouble in the fifth and that was his undoing.

Betts cracked a two-run homer to make it 4-0, and the Red Sox loaded the bases when Xander Bogaerts cleared them with a double.

“It wasn’t horrible until the fifth, then the wheels came off,” Young said.

Young, 6-3, walked to the dugout down 7-0 after 4 2/3 innings with his worst outing of the season. He had surrendered six runs in five innings against the Cleveland Indians on June 4.

Entering the game, Young owned a 1.98 ERA and had tossed 13 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings. That streak grew by an inning with a scoreless first and is the longest by a Royals starter this year.

“Nobody’s going nail it every time they go out there,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “It was just one of those days when he wished his fastball command had been better.”

After Young’s departure, the Red Sox weren’t finished hitting or making history. They tagged Jason Frasor and Aaron Brooks for three runs each. Boston’s 13 extra-base hits were the most ever hit against the Royals and the eight doubles tied the record for an opponent.

The Royals, 39-27, lost the series to the Red Sox but remain in first place in the America League Central by 3 1/2 games over the Minnesota Twins.

The home stand started with two victories over the Milwaukee Brewers, and the Red Sox arrived having lost eight of their previous 10.

But instead of getting fat on Red Sox pitching, which has the A.L.’s worst by ERA, the Royals merely avoided getting swept with Saturday’s victory. They finished 3-2 on the home stand as they open a nine-game road trip Monday night in Seattle against the Mariners.

They will seek better clutch hitting on the West Coast than what was delivered Sunday.

The Royals had emerged from offensive doldrums that resulted in a 2-9 skid they dragged into June.

Over the previous six games, they banged out at least 10 hits and were hitting .358 and averaging 6.3 runs in that span.

Sunday, they couldn’t solve Red Sox starter Wade Miley, 7-6.

Three times the Royals had multiple runners on, but the needed two-out hit never materialized.

In the first, Eric Hosmer and Kendrys Morales singled ahead of an Alex Gordon walk, but Alex Rios lined out to center.

Morales and Gordon singled to open the fourth, but Rios flied to shallow right. After Omar Infante grounded into a fielder’s choice, Christian Colon, who started at third base to spell Mike Moustakas, flied to center.

Two more runners reached in the fifth with one out, but the Royals again couldn’t come up with the decisive blow.

Finally, with two outs in the ninth, Lorenzo Cain gapped a triple to right that scored Infante and Drew Butera, and the Royals avoided the shutout.

Meanwhile, Red Sox hitters were padding their statistics, and none had a bigger day than Betts.

The Red Sox leadoff man opened the game with a slow roller that shortstop Alcides Escobar charged, bare-handed and finished the Royals’ best defensive play.

The significance of the gem? Betts went on to hit a double, home run and triple. Escobar perhaps robbed him of a cycle.

Betts came up for a final opportunity in the ninth but flied to center field on Brooks’ first pitch.

It was about only failure by the Red Sox on Sunday.

This story was originally published June 21, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Red Sox rout Royals, 13-2."