Royal Flush by Jared Carrabis
Sox Sweep Royals Out Of Boston

Sweep! Not just the four game series but the entire home stand. This being the first time the Red Sox have swept an entire home stand of seven games or more in two years. The Red Sox first welcomed the Brewers to Fenway Park only to sweep them back to the National League where they came from and then went on to take all four games from the Kansas City Royals in impressive fashion. Boston's pitching is on fire right now and if you need any proof of that just ask the Royals themselves.


The final game of the four game set saw major fireworks off the bats of the Red Sox. Down by one run in the bottom of the second, JD Drew connected with the bases loaded and sent a ball deep and over the Green Monster for his first home run since April 13th and his first grand slam since his memorable slam off of Fausto Carmona in game six of the American League Championship series this past October.


The slamming of the Royals would continue when Red Sox Nation saw shades of Troy O'Leary in the bottom of the sixth when Manny Ramirez received an intentional walk with first base open to bring Mike Lowell to the plate. Lowell knew what to do, he drove an 87 MPH cut fastball into the Monster seats for the second Red Sox grand slam of the evening. The first time the Red Sox would accomplish this feat since 2003 when Billy Mueller did all the dirty work himself when he hit a grand slam from both sides of the plate becoming the first player to do so.


I know this game sounds like it was a blowout but the Royals would not go quietly. Daisuke Matsuzaka was unable to be consistent in throwing strikes once again and tallied six walks on the evening. The walks would eventually lead to runs and those runs would allow the Royals to creep back into a game that was once 11-3 in Boston's favor. The Royals' final eight runs (home runs by Jose Guillen and Miguel Olivo) would have been enough to drop the Sox in any other game in the series but not today. The Red Sox plated eleven runs to bury the Royals and sweep their seven game home stand. The Sox will now pack their bags and head out west to face the Oakland Athletics and their league leading pitching staff.


Final Score: Royals 8, Red Sox 11

Published on May 22, 2008

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