Roman Anthony’s two-out RBI single in the seventh inning snapped a 1-1 tie, lifting the Boston Red Sox to a 4-1 win over the visiting Kansas City Royals in the rain-delayed rubber game of their series on Sunday.
The Red Sox (82-68) took a 1-0 lead on Caleb Durbin’s solo homer in the second inning before scoring three runs over their final two at-bats.
Willson Contreras, who missed the previous 12 games with a left hamstring strain, and Trevor Story each had two hits. Story had a two-RBI single in the eighth.
Payton Tolle struck out seven and allowed just four hits and one walk over six shutout innings, including an immaculate first. Garrett Whitlock (7-1) was credited with the win in relief while Aroldis Chapman brushed off two walks of his own to strike out the side for his 34th save.
Kansas City (66-84) was limited to just five hits, though Noah Cameron tossed one-run ball across six innings.
After Red Sox reliever Erik Miller’s back-to-back walks led to Kansas City’s game-tying run on a Carter Jensen RBI single in the top of the seventh, Craig Kimbrel (1-5) issued one-out free passes to Durbin and Nick Sogard, and Anthony’s line-drive knock into right-center field off Connor Thomas followed two batters later.
In the eighth, the Red Sox tagged Nate Pearson for three straight one-out hits to add insurance to their lead. Story drove home Contreras and Adley Rutschman, who singled and doubled, respectively.
Tolle generated seven swings and misses en route to his immaculate inning, punctuating it with a 98 mph fastball to retire Jac Caglianone swinging. He became only the eighth Red Sox pitcher in franchise history to post the feat and the first since Chris Sale in 2021.
The left-hander struck out each of the first four batters he faced before a one-out infield single to Michael Massey in the second.
An inning after Cameron got out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first, Durbin vaulted the Red Sox into the lead with a blast into the Green Monster seats in left-center field.
Massey’s knock was Kansas City’s lone hit until the fifth, when Tolle stranded Luke Maile and Tyler Tolbert following back-to-back singles with two outs. In the sixth, Tolle allowed a leadoff single to Bobby Witt Jr. and hit Caglianone before two inning-ending strikeouts kept Boston in front.
The Royals finally broke through in the seventh. After Isaac Collins — who drew the first of back-to-back walks from Miller — was out on a force play at third, Jensen grounded a pinch-hit single past diving first baseman Contreras to plate pinch runner John Rave with the tying run. Whitlock escaped that jam with back-to-back outs thereafter.
