Royals hoping to get another Keller performance against Red Sox

KANSAS CITY, MB – The first game of the Boston Red Sox's three-game series with the Kansas City Royals on Friday night was held as planned on paper.

The Red Sox took an 8-0 lead after two innings and Chris Sale dominated the Royals, hitting 12 in six innings. The Royals scored four unimportant points in the last three games against the Red Sox and suffered a 10-5 loss.

The Red Sox and Royals will meet again Saturday night, and Boston will again strongly favored.

Boston (60-29) leads the majors with 60 wins and has the highest percentage in the .674 major league. The Red Sox are 31 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2013 season at 97-65.

Their 60 wins are the fourth most after 89 games in the franchise's 118-year history. The only teams with more wins after 89 games were the Red Sox from 1946 to 63-26 and the clubs from 1912 and 1978 to 61-28.

Boston is 5-2 in nine games, ten days in New York, Washington and Kansas City. It is 32-17 away from Fenway Park.

The Red Sox are 3-1 against the Royals this season. The Royals were 8-4 against the Red Sox in the previous two seasons, Boston's worst record against any opponent during that period.

Left-handed David Price will start the Red Sox on Saturday. He is 9-6 with a 4.28 ERA in his first 17 starts.

The prize had a bad start Sunday at Yankee Stadium, allowing eight runs and nine hits in three sets and one-third.

Prior to that, Price had been magnificent in her previous nine starts, posting a 7-1 record with a 2.72 ERA. He awarded 17 earned runs in 56 innings and one-third during a period from May 12 to June 26. He only allowed three earned runs in each of these starts.

The award is undefeated in seven career starts and an opening match against the Royals. He is 4-0 with a 2.13 ERA against Kansas City, dropping 12 earned runs in 50 innings and 2/3.

The dynamic duo of the Red Sox, Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, is very hard for pitchers, which was the case on Friday.

Betts led the game with a home race, the 100th of his career. He joins Tony Conigliaro, Jim Rice and Ted Williams as the only Red Sox players with 100 homers before their 26th birthday.

Betts is batting .369 (41-in-111) with nine homers and 19 RBIs in 26 career games against the Royals. His batting average is best for any opponent hitter with a minimum of 100 at-bats against Kansas City.

Martinez hit a two-point shot in the second inning and leads the majors with 27 homers. Only Carl Yastrzemski, 29 in 1969, and David Ortiz, 31 in 2006, had more circuits before the break of the match of the stars. Martinez leads the American League with 73 RBIs.

The Royals will send rookie right-hander Brad Keller (2-3, 2.09 ERA) to the mound as they attempt to take a series of seven defeats.

Keller, a choice of Arizona Diamondbacks' Rule 5, launched a six-shot full six-shot streak in Seattle during his previous start, but he lost 1-0 to the Mariners.

He is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA in 13 appearances at Kauffman Stadium. He has a 2.25 ERA in three home starts.

Keller made two relief appearances in May in Boston. He got the last two outs in the seventh inning without losing points in a 5-4 win and 11 innings on May 1st. The next day, he made a 1 1/3 gain.