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Red Sox take down Royals

Sep 12, 2014 - 7:42 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Will Middlebrooks went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI as the Boston Red Sox downed the division-leading Kansas City Royals, 6-3, in the opener of a four-game series.

Jemile Weeks hit a two-run double, while David Ortiz had two hits and an RBI to back a strong start from Clay Buchholz (8-8), who scattered three runs -- two earned -- over 6 1/3 innings.

Boston had dropped four straight coming in but capitalized on three Royals errors and an ineffective spot-start from Liam Hendriks.

"Anytime you gave a club an extra out, you are likely walking a tightwire and that was the case on both sides tonight," said Red Sox manager John Farrell on the errors.

Hendriks (1-2) was filling in for an injured Danny Duffy and did not make it out of the third inning.

"We were struggling offensively," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "(Hendriks) just kind of lost all of his tempo in the third inning."

The loss dropped Kansas City's AL Central lead to a half-game over the Tigers.

Christian Vazquez's routine ground ball with two outs in the second inning went right through Eric Hosmer's legs at first, and Middlebrooks came around to score the game's first run.

The Royals also scored on a two-out error in the bottom half. Alcides Escobar singled in Lorenzo Cain to tie things, stole second and scored on a throwing error by Mike Napoli. Norichika Aoki beat out an infield single, and Napoli was trying to throw behind Escobar at third, but the ball got away from Middlebrooks.

Boston loaded the bases in the third, and Hendriks walked Napoli to force in a run, then gave up an RBI single to Middlebrooks to effectively end his outing.

Casey Coleman induced a double-play ball to get out the inning with Kansas City only trailing by a run, but errors by Escobar and Mike Moustakas in the fourth led to another Boston run via an Ortiz base hit.

Cain singled in Josh Willingham in the home sixth, the last inning the Royals put any runners in scoring position.

Weeks' two-run double in the eighth gave Boston some breathing room, and Edward Mujica set down the side in the ninth to post his fifth save.

Game Notes

Ortiz is one RBI shy of his eighth 100-RBI campaign ... Boston began a 10-game road trip, its last of the season ... Buchholz is 6-1 lifetime against the Royals ... Aoki and Cain each had two of Kansas City's six hits ... Hendriks was charged with three runs -- two earned -- on four hits.