Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals

The Boston Red Sox have had an average home stand through the first six games of losing two of three to the Seattle Mariners and winning two of three over the Oakland Athletics. The erratic play has helped the surging New York Yankees move within a game of the first-place Red Sox.

Good news for the Red Sox (51-33), they will have the Kansas City Royals (36-48) served up for the main course in each of the next four games leading to the All-Star break.

Even better news for Boston is that they will miss All-Star, and possible All-Star starter, Zach Greinke in the four-game series as he pitched in the series finale at Detroit and took his fifth loss of the season on Wednesday.

This will be the first meeting of the season for Boston and Kansas City. Last year Boston made it look easy, winning six of the seven games between them.

The Red Sox look to recapture the best record in baseball heading into the All-Star break and hold off a hard-charging Yankees team that has won seven straight road games. Boston looks for their third straight win, after going 1-3 to start the home stand, they defeated Oakland two straight times.

Kansas City is looking to avoid three straight losses. They won the first game of their series with the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers on Monday, but dropped the final two, including the series finale with Grienke, who allowed three runs in the first two innings, but settled down and was the victim of poor run support in the 3-1 loss on Wednesday.

The Royals have dropped six of the last nine.

Brad Penny (6-3, 4.67) will try to keep his team’s fortunes heading north and Kansas City’s heading south, but will need to find a way to garner a victory. Penny has pitched well, but has been the victim of poor run support as he has compiled just a 2.20 ERA in his last five starts and only has one win to show for it.

The Royals will counter with a former number one pick to stop their latest skid. Luke Hochevar (4-3, 5.08) won his last start despite giving up four runs over six innings in a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox

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