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Royals look to stay hot against Red Sox in opener

Aug 4, 2008 - 1:37 PM Boston (64-48) at Kansas City (52-60), 8:10 pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Royals picked a great time for their offense to come alive - a trend that will likely need to continue if they want to continue their success against American League playoff contenders.

After pounding out a season-high 19 hits in each of their last two games, the Royals take on the Boston Red Sox for the opener of a three-game set on Monday.

Kansas City dropped its series opener against the Chicago White Sox on Friday but proceeded to score 23 runs in the final two contests. The hit totals in Saturday and Sunday's games were the most since Kansas City collected 21 on July 9, 2005.

Prior to the series, the White Sox (61-49) had a slim one-half-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central Division. The Royals now square off against the Red Sox, who stand three games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays (66-44) in the AL East.

Winners of six of their last seven games, the Royals must find a way to solve Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz (2-6, 5.94 ERA), who has struggled lately.

The 23-year-old has surrendered 17 runs over his last three starts, spanning 16 1/3 innings. He also has dropped four straight decisions and is winless since May 2, when he held the Rays to one run and five hits in 5 1/3 frames.

Kansas City will counter with Gil Meche (9-9, 4.22) with hopes of holding its opponent to three runs or less for the sixth time in eight contests. In his last three starts, the righthander is 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA while striking out 18 and walking four in 20 1/3 innings.

Jason Bay, the newly acquired outfielder the Red Sox received as part of the three-team trade involving Manny Ramirez, is 4-for-11 in his first three games with Boston.