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Lester, Red Sox beat Royals to win series

Aug 21, 2011 - 11:31 PM Kansas City, MO (Sports Network) - Jon Lester sparkled until running into trouble in the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox beat Kansas City 6-1 on Sunday to take three of four games against the Royals.

Lester (13-6) gave up just one hit before the seventh, when the Royals scored their only run to knock him out of the game with no outs. The left-hander struck out three, walked four and moved to 3-2 in six starts since coming off the disabled list last month.

"I feel good because we won the game. My stuff at times was good," said Lester. "Other times, I was trying to do too much, over-throwing the ball a little bit."

Darnell McDonald and Carl Crawford hit solo homers for the Red Sox, who remained a half-game behind the Yankees for the AL East lead after New York beat Minnesota on Sunday.

Danny Duffy (3-8) suffered his fourth straight loss after giving up two runs on five hits in six innings, and the Royals fell to 4-13 in their last 17 games.

Lester didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, when Salvador Perez singled with two outs.

The Red Sox, who only had two hits by that point, scored once in each of the next three innings to take a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth, Jed Lowrie hit a leadoff single and scored on Jason Varitek's two-out triple to the wall in right-center field. It was Varitek's first triple since 2007, when he hit three.

McDonald then hit his fifth homer of the season in the sixth and Crawford belted his eighth in the seventh.

Lester didn't give up his second hit until the seventh, when Johnny Giavotella led off with a triple. Lester then walked Perez and was pulled after giving up Mike Moustakas' RBI single.

"He was a little erratic today, a little wild. He got behind every now and then, but a guy like that is able to get in the zone easily," Moustakas said of Lester. "He's got great stuff and he can go in there and throw strikes any time he wants. He was effectively wild today."

Daniel Bard came in with runners on first and second and got three straight outs.

The Red Sox put the game away with a three-run eighth, sparked by Marco Scutaro's double and back-to-back singles by McDonald and Adrian Gonzalez with no outs.

Scutaro scored on Gonzalez's hit, while Lowrie hit a sacrifice fly and Ryan Lavarnway added an RBI double to make it 6-1.

Game Notes

Red Sox went 5-3 against the Royals this season. They continue their eight- game road trip with four against Texas starting Monday...The Royals went 1- for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven.