KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Xander Bogaerts had four hits, Alex Verdugo doubled twice and the Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 7-4 Friday night.
Verdugo had three hits as Boston evened the four-game series at a win apiece. Josh Winckowski (5-5) allowed one run on five hits over five innings for the Red Sox.
Zack Greinke (3-7) allowed four runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings for Kansas City.
“It felt good. From top to bottom a lot of really good at-bats,” Verdugo said. “We know Greinke. We know he kind of relies on over-aggression and expanding the strike zone. I think we did a really good job of making him come to us and then hitting the mistakes.”
The Red Sox got on the board in the second when ex-Royal Eric Hosmer pulled a double down the right-field line, scoring Verdugo.
Boston added two more runs in the fourth. J.D. Martinez hit a double off the wall in left-center, driving in Bogaerts and Verdugo.
“Greinke is master of throwing pitches around the zone and getting people out,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “He’s been really good throughout his career. We had to grind at-bats.”
The Royals threatened in their half of the fourth. They loaded the bases with one out, but Kyle Isbel grounded back to Winckowski, who threw to the plate for the force out, and Nicky Lopez struck out.
“Those drills from day 3 of spring training, that’s why you do them,” Winckowski said. “When you’re (facing the) bases loaded with one out, you’re either thinking about a strikeout or a groundout. It just happened to be back to me. Then I had to make another pitch after that.”
Bogaerts drove in the Red Sox fourth run with a two-out single, chasing Greinke.
“(Bogaerts is) really good at going the other way,” Cora said. “Today he did it a…
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