By MATT PIKE
Bailey Falter struggled in his Kansas City Royals debut, giving up five runs in the first inning, and the Royals could not recover on way to an 8-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Monday night at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox loaded the bases against Falter in the bottom of the first inning right away, and scored two runs on a single by Rob Refsnyder, driving in Romy Gonzalez and Alex Bregman. With two outs, the final three runs of the inning scored as Jarren Duran hit his 12th home run of the season, scoring Wilyer Abreu and Refsnyder.
Ceddanne Rafaela extended the lead in the third inning with an RBI single for Boston, driving in Trevor Story. The Royals found their way onto the scoreboard in the next inning Adam Frazier hitting a sacrifice fly to bring home Salvador Perez, but in the bottom half of the inning the Red Sox got that run back on a single by Bregman, scoring Abraham Toro.
Abreu added the final run for the Red Sox in the seventh inning, an RBI single driving in Gonzalez. In the eighth inning, the Royals put together a small rally with a four run inning. Vinnie Pasquantino and Maikel Garcia led the inning off with back to back home runs. Mike Yastrzemski doubled with one out, and advanced to third base on a fielding error by Duran, later scoring with a single by Frazier. Frazier scored the final run on a double by Nick Loftin.
Falter fell to 7-6 on the season, pitching four innings and giving up seven runs on eight hits while striking out two and walking two. At the plate, Garcia was 2-for-5 with the home run and an RBI. Yastrzemski was 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored.
Kansas City and Boston continue their series tomorrow. Ryan Bergert (1-0, 2.78 ERA) makes his Royals debut while Garrett Crochet (12-4, 2.23 ERA) takes the mound for the Red Sox. First pitch is at 6:10pm, pregame coverage begins at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
