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Royals turn to Pino against Red Sox

Jun 19, 2015 - 2:45 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Kansas City Royals will have a fresh face on the mound Friday in the opener of a three-game series versus the Boston Red Sox.

Royals starting pitcher Yordano Ventura just landed on the disabled list with numbness in his hand and the club will call up Yohan Pino from Triple-A Omaha to face the Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

Pino has made six appearances out of the bullpen this season and is 0-1 with a 0.64 earned run average (14 innings). The Venezuelan right-hander will take on Boston for the first time and has a 4-2 record with a 4.93 ERA in seven games (6 starts) with the Storm Chasers.

The AL Central-leading Royals received good pitching from Jeremy Guthrie in Thursday's 3-2 win versus the Milwaukee Brewers and the veteran allowed two runs in six innings. Guthrie struck out four and did not walk a batter to help Kansas City complete a four-game sweep and win for the eighth time in 10 tries.

Kansas City scored two runs in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Lorenzo Cain and an RBI single from Kendrys Morales. Alcides Escobar had three hits and scored twice for the Royals.

Royals manager Ned Yost passed Whitey Herzog for the most wins in franchise history on Tuesday night. The victory was Yost's 411th at the helm.

"I don't look at it as an individual achievement," Yost said. "It's nice, but this is an organizational achievement."

The Red Sox are in the basement of the AL East at nine games off the pace and managed to split a four-game interleague series with the Atlanta Braves.

Boston won for the second time in the last 10 games with Thursday's 5-2 victory at Turner Field, as Clay Buchholz delivered seven strong innings and gave up only two unearned runs with three K's and one walk. Buchholz was scrappy at the plate, too, and worked a 10-pitch at-bat in the fifth.

"I thought one of the key at-bats of the game was Clay Buchholz in the fifth inning," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "It was a 10-pitch at-bat and we were able to run the pitch count up."

Mookie Betts and Alejandro De Aza both had two hits and an RBI, while Brock Holt ended with two hits and three runs scored for Boston.

Red Sox high-priced third baseman Pablo Sandoval did not play Thursday for violating the league's social media policy in Wednesday's 5-2 loss. Sandoval was not fined for the incident.

"We have our own policy where there's a time of the day where phones are to be put away and shut off and all attention paid to the game at hand and supporting your teammates," Farrell said. "When actions run counter to that, that's when consequences are had."

Sandoval is expected to be back in the lineup Friday and is batting .270 with six home runs and 23 RBI.

Eduardo Rodriguez will take the ball for Boston Friday and has a 2-1 record with a 3.55 ERA in four starts. The rookie left-hander lost his latest start, a 13-5 setback to Toronto on Sunday. He gave up nine runs and eight hits in a season-low 4 2/3 innings.

Rodriguez will face the Royals for the first time.

Boston went 6-1 against Kansas City last season and the two clubs will play four times at Kauffman Stadium in late August.