Sox-Royals 6-4W – 8.2.05

The Red Sox won their sixth in a row Tuesday night, a 6-4 victory over the lowly Kansas City Royals which, when coupled with the MFY’s 6-5 loss to Cleveland, gave the Sox a 3.5 game lead against the suddenly free-falling competition in the AL East.

On his 39th birthday, Tim Wakefield pitched a solid seven innings, allowing only six hits—albeit two homers, one each to former Sox scab Matt Stairs and former Sox farmhand Chip Ambres, which accounted for all four runs allowed—and no walks to go with seven strikeouts. Though his two miscues staked the Royals to an early lead, the hot Sox offense, led by the rejuvenated Manny Ramirez provided plenty of firepower for the comeback.

Manny proved to his detractors—most of whom changed their tunes to at least grudging acceptance come Sunday at 4—that accounts of his dissatisfaction with Boston were greatly exaggerated by launching a 3-run blast (his league-leading 29th on the season) in the fourth inning and notching another RBI (his likewise-league-leading 98th for the year) on a single in the seventh to provide some breathing room for the bullpen in the late innings. Manny’s RBI single followed a walk by scrap-heap pick up Jose Cruz Jr., an RBI single by former Royal Tony Graffanino and another run-scoring single by Johnny Rockstar.

The extra space would not go unnoticed as Mike Timlin allowed two runners to reach, both on basehits, with two outs in the eighth before retiring the side, giving way to Curt Schilling for the ninth. Schill pitched himself into trouble without allowing a hit—ceding a walk to Mark Teahan, balking Teahan to second, allowing a long fly ball to send Teahan to third—before striking out the last two batters for his sixth save of the season.

Record: 60-45
Streak: W6
Standing: 1st in the AL East, 3.5 games ahead of MFY
Next Game: Wed 7:05pm EST Wade Miller (3-4, 4.57) vs. Kyle Snyder (0-2, 8.59)