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Guthrie lifts Royals over Red Sox

Sep 14, 2014 - 5:12 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Jeremy Guthrie came through with eight brilliant innings and received plenty of offensive support as the Kansas City Royals posted a key 7-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

Guthrie (11-11) yielded just three hits -- none after the third inning -- and one unearned run to lead the Royals to their first win in six attempts against Boston this season. That includes losses in each of the previous two tests of this four-game set.

Saturday's triumph also kept Kansas City within a half-game of Detroit for first place in the American League Central after the Tigers rallied to defeat Cleveland.

Omar Infante paced a 12-hit Kansas City attack by going 3-for-4 with two RBI, with Nori Aoki and Alex Gordon each finishing with two hits while knocking in a run.

The Royals did most of their damage against Rubby De La Rosa (4-7), who lasted just four innings and was tagged for five runs.

Guthrie was staked to a lead right out of the chute, as Alcides Escobar doubled on De La Rosa's fourth pitch of the night and crossed the plate on Aoki's high chopper that got through the infield for a single.

Aoki took second on Yoenis Cespedes' throw home and advanced another base on a groundout, then scored Kansas City's second run when he was hit in the back on a pickoff attempt by Boston catcher Christian Vasquez and the ball caromed into the outfield.

"That's a good aggressive play," Red Sox manager John Farrell said of Vasquez's error. "If the throw's a little bit on the inside of the base line, Aoki's out. It just happened his return to third base was inside the base line, and it clipped him."

The Red Sox capitalized on a defensive miscue by the Royals in the third inning, however, to close the gap. Mookie Betts reached when Mike Moustakas couldn't handle a grounder to third, was moved to third on a David Ortiz single and came home on Cespedes' sac fly.

Boston never came close to scoring again, as Guthrie set down the final 17 hitters he faced following Ortiz's single.

"It was obviously a good bounce-back outing after the last one," said Guthrie, who was shelled for eight runs -- six earned -- and 10 hits over just 2 2/3 innings by the Tigers on Monday.

The Royals broke the game open by striking three times in the fourth inning.

A Lorenzo Cain double and a single by Gordon put two runners aboard for Salvador Perez, who flared a double down the right-field line to bring in Cain. After a groundout by Infante pushed Gordon across, De La Rosa was called for a balk to allow Perez to trot home for a 5-1 advantage.

The Royals tacked on two more runs in the eighth, with Gordon plating Cain with a double and coming home on Infante's third hit of the game.

Game Notes

Kansas City went 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position ... De La Rosa fell to 0-3 in his last six starts and has failed to pitch five innings in four of those outings ... The Royals improved to 35-9 in games where Aoki scores at least one run ... Ortiz had two of Boston's four hits after sitting out Friday's tilt with a bruised right foot.