KC Gets The Hits, But The Sox Get The Runs

It was a bit of a bizarre game in Kansas City on Wednesday night.

Josh Beckett scattered 12, yes 12, hits to the Royals in six innings, but Kansas City could push across just two runs as the Red Sox came from behind to beat the pesky Royals, 9-2. Beckett also struck out seven.

Beckett was in dutch in the first four innings he pitched, and Kansas City finally scored two in the fourth to break a scoreless tie. Luke Hochevar was pitching very well for the first four innings, allowing just one hit.

But the Red Sox finally woke up and realized that it wasn't Zack Greinke on the mound, and tagged him for six runs in the fifth innings. Mike Lowell made the first out of the inning, and the next eight men all reached with six scoring. Then Lowell banged into a double play to conclude the rally.

Yep, Lowell made all three outs in the inning on two at-bats. That sure doesn't happen every day.

Beckett went the first six, and the bullpen core of Hideki Okajima, Billy Wagner and Jonathan Papelbon shut down Kansas City the rest of the way. David Ortiz, who had four RBI, had three of them in the ninth, as he hit a bomb to right field, his 25th home run of the year to conclude the scoring.

Beckett is now 16-6. The Red Sox Magic Number drops down to 5 (it will go to four if Texas loses tonight, and they are up by three runs as I write this).

Terry Francona also tied Mike Higgins for second on the Red Sox' all-time wins list with 560 with the win on Wednesday. He's still a long way away from the record of 1,071 set by Joe Cronin.

Clay Buchholz concludes the four-game set on the hill tomorrow night in Kansas City.