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Drew, Lowell help Red Sox slam Royals

May 22, 2008 - 11:47 PM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) - J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell helped the Boston Red Sox slam the door on a four-game series sweep of the Kansas City Royals.

Drew and Lowell each connected for grand slams and Daisuke Matsuzaka was the beneficiary, improving to 8-0 as the Boston Red Sox outlasted the Kansas City Royals, 11-8, Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park.

Boston finished a perfect 7-0 on their homestand and improved to a major league-best 21-5 at home.

"We just want to win," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "I think we've used just about everybody on our roster, which is always good. Everybody feels like they're doing something to help us."

Miguel Olivo homered and matched a career high with five RBIs for Kansas City, which lost its fourth straight.

Matsuzaka labored through the first inning, throwing 34 pitches, walking two and allowing a run after retiring the first two batters. In between the free passes to Alex Gordon and Mark Teahen, Matsuzaka threw a wild pitch that set the stage for Jose Guillen's RBI single to right and a 1-0 Royals lead.

The Red Sox starter threw 118 pitches while only lasting 5 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and three runs while walking six and striking out seven.

"It wasn't very good," Matsuzaka said. "It hasn't been very good for a while now. There are a lot of reasons. It is not really something I prefer to discuss out in the open but rather something I need to digest within myself."

After retiring the side in order in the first, Kansas City starter Brian Bannister (4-6) immediately ran into trouble in the second when Boston opened with three straight singles to load the bases.

Drew, who connected for a dramatic grand slam in Game Six of last year's American League Championship Series against Cleveland, repeated the feat by hitting a 2-2 fastball into the second row of "Green Monster" seats for his fourth career grand slam.

"It's always nice to get rewarded with a good swing and a grand slam is a nice reward," Drew said.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to throw that pitch to Drew," Bannister said. "I've just been having problems with runners on base and the swings batters have been getting off me. I have to step back and see if I'm doing something wrong. I just haven't been effective with runners on base."

Boston added a run in the third when Kevin Youkilis singled home Lowell for a 5-1 lead.

Even with the four-run advantage, Matsuzaka continued to struggle with his command. He walked two more in the third and yielded a double and single in the fourth but escaped each time.

The Royals finally capitalized in the fifth when Guillen and Olivo each had run-scoring doubles, narrowing the deficit to 5-3.

But the Red Sox responded with six runs in the sixth, highlighted by Lowell's seventh career grand slam, a drive to left off lefthander Jimmy Gobble, who intentionally walked Manny Ramirez to get to Lowell.

"I never take it personal as long as I'm hitting behind a guy that's going to the Hall of Fame, that's fine," said Lowell of hitting behind Ramirez. "I think what I try to do there is almost minimize the moment but after the fact, anytime you come though, a grand slam is a pretty nice exclamation point."

It was the 10th time the Red Sox clubbed two grand slams in the same game in their history, a major league record.

"We got some runs," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "It's good to see the offense wake up.

"But I said it before this series started, and I've said it a couple of times since, you've got to execute pitches. This club (Boston) is hitting .290 or .295, and you've got to make your pitches and we didn't do that."

Jonathan Papelbon allowed two hits in the ninth but retired Alex Gordon representing the tying run on a flyout to left for his 14th save.