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Royals crown Red Sox; Wakefield denied 200th win again

Aug 21, 2011 - 2:57 AM Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - The Royals became the fifth team to deny Tim Wakefield his 200th career win, knocking the knuckleballer out during an eight-run sixth inning Saturday on the way to a 9-4 victory over the Red Sox.

The Royals sent 12 batters to the plate and had seven of their 14 hits during the frame. Eric Hosmer's two-run triple capped the big rally, as Kansas City bounced back nicely after losing the first two of this four-game series.

Wakefield has been trying for nearly a month to reach the 200-win plateau, but is winless in his last five starts since capturing No. 199 on July 24. He was charged with four runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.

"I'm trying to take it like it's a normal start and trying to go out there and give us some quality innings, quality starts," said Wakefield. "I had a bad sixth inning."

Matt Albers (4-4) was pegged with five of KC's eight runs in the sixth and took the loss.

Felipe Paulino (2-5) benefited from the outburst to earn his first win in seven starts. He gave up four runs on eight hits in six innings.

Alex Gordon had three hits, including a two-run double in the sixth, while Hosmer had both of his hits during the rally.

"With Hos getting the two hits, he won the prize for the inning," said Royals manager Ned Yost.

Billy Butler had an RBI double earlier in the game for KC.

After scoring just five runs in the first 23 innings of the series, the Royals broke the dam in this one to capture only their fourth win in 16 games. They are 2-4 on a seven-game homestand.

The Red Sox entered the game trailing the Yankees by a half-game for the AL Central lead and remained in the same position, failing to capitalize on New York's loss in Minnesota on Saturday.

The Red Sox took a 3-1 lead in the fourth on Carl Crawford's RBI single and Darnell McDonald's sacrifice fly, and they went ahead 4-1 on recent callup Ryan Lavarnway's RBI base hit in the sixth.

But Hosmer's one-out single sparked the decisive rally in the sixth, which also included RBI doubles from Jeff Francoeur and Mike Moustakas and run- scoring singles from Chris Getz and Melky Cabrera.

"It was good to just keep the hits coming," said Yost.

Game Notes

The Red Sox are 2-1 on their eight-game road trip, which continues after this series with a four-game set in Texas. They have lost five of their last eight...Wakefield is trying to become the 108th pitcher in MLB history -- and 89th in modern history (since 1900) -- to reach 200 wins...Paulino was 0-3 in his previous six starts and just 1-5 in 14 appearances since being acquired from the Rockies for cash in May...He faced the Red Sox for the first time.