G104: Royals 4, Red Sox 2

Royals   - 010 300 000 - 4  8  0
Red Sox  - 000 010 100 - 2  7  0

Rick Porcello (7-6-4-1-5, 111) gave up two home runs - a solo shot to Salvador Perez and a three-run job to Mike Moustakas - and the Red Sox lost for the fifth time in their last six games.

Coupled with the Yankees' 6-1 win over the Rays (Masahiro Tanaka retired the first 17 batters), Boston dropped into second place for the first time in five weeks (0.5 GB). Since July 5, the Red Sox are 7-13.

The Red Sox had only one runner past first base in the first four innings against Jason Vargas (6-5-1-2-2, 99). In the fifth, Rafael Devers doubled with one out. Mookie Betts's two-out single scored Devers. Eduardo Nunez followed with another single, but Dustin Pedroia grounded into a fielder's choice to third.

Down 4-1, Chris Young began the seventh inning against Mike Minor with a triple. After Devers struck out, Sandy Leon grounded to second and Young scored. Peter Moylan came out of the pen and got Betts on an 0-2 grounder back to the mound.

Joakim Soria got three quick outs in the eighth. Kelvin Herrera allowed a two-out infield single to Andrew Benintendi in the ninth. Devers stepped in as the potential tying run, but he grounded the first pitch to second and the Royals forced Benintendi at second.

Nunez had two singles and a walk in his Red Sox debut.

Home plate Bill Miller disgraced himself when he called Hanley Ramirez out on strikes to end the eighth inning. If Ramirez had been allowed to keep hitting (with a 2-2 count), could the Red Sox have begun a rally that might have turned the game around? It's possible, but we'll never know because Miller took it upon himself to declare the Red Sox were finished batting in that inning. Strike three is pitch #4:

AL East
NYY  55  46  ---
BOS  56  48  0.5
TBR  53  51  3.5

NESN can be quite strange. On at least two occasions tonight, Dave O'Brien talked about how Dustin Pedroia called the media round him before the game and spoke about team leadership and how he is "standing right here" as a team leader. Yet neither O'Brien nor Jonny Gomes, his booth partner for the night, said anything about why Pedroia made those statements to the media.

Eckgate is a huge story in Boston, but you won't hear even a peep about it on the station that broadcasts Red Sox games. NESN's refusal to say anything about what David Price has set into motion is beyond baffling. Whether O'Brien is acting on his own and staying mum or whether he is being silenced from above, it's an abdication of his responsibility as the team's most-visible announcer.

Jason Vargas / Rick Porcello

Betts, RF
Nunez, DH
Pedroia, 2B
Ramirez, 1B
Bradley, CF
Bogaerts, SS
Young, LF
Devers, 3B
Leon, C

As the Red Sox begin a 10-game homestand against the Royals, Spiders, and White Sox, their lead in the American League East over the Yankees has been whittled down to one half-game.

Rick Porcello gets the ball tonight, because David Price has been placed on the disabled list with elbow trouble. (Porcello will be on normal rest.) Price underwent an MRI yesterday. Michael Silverman of the Herald reports that Price is dealing with the "same forearm issue" as earlier this season. (No word yet on whether Price has blamed NESN's Dennis Eckersley for his discomfort/injury.)

Speaking of Eckgate, the issue of whether unofficial team captain Dustin Pedroia cheered Price's dressing-down of Eckersley is unclear. Two days ago, CBS Boston's Fred Toucher tweeted that a "source close to Eckersley" told him Pedroia was "cheering aggressively". However, WEEI's Rob Bradford stated yesterday that a source who witnessed the incident on the team plane "insists Pedroia wasn't near [the] group involved and not at all involved" in the players' reaction.

Barring video footage from the team plane, we'll never know what really happened, but these two contradictory reports - zero cheering vs. aggressively cheering - means someone is absolutely lying.

[Update (in comments): Pedroia denies clapping.]

Also, there is this new info from Ron Borges of the Herald:

You all know by now how Price ambushed Eck last month on the team plane, verbally assaulting him as a number of his weak-kneed teammates applauded. Then Price went back to his seat, I was told, and put on a pair of sunglasses as if he was The Terminator. It was midnight.

Guys who wear sunglasses at midnight are either beaten fighters or morons. Price has never been in a fight in his life, so there you go.

And from Kevin McNamara of the Providence Journal:

A wave of Price-bashing has dominated talk radio all week and you have to wonder just how this bright, Vanderbilt-educated, nine-year veteran could be so short-sighted.

Stunningly, some important people in the Red Sox organization see little problem with a star pitcher treating a Hall of Famer with such disregard. ...

Price's approach of Eckersley was hardly direct. Instead he tried to bully a legend, a move that only makes him look small. Farrell is praised for "handling" his clubhouse in a professional manner but Price seems like a loose cannon. Maybe that's why Boston is his fourth team in five years. ...

What Price needs to realize is he has no equity in Boston. Last October he embarrassed himself in a playoff (3.1 IP, 5 runs) loss to the Indians ... He showed up to spring training in February with an arm injury ...

Price may be the highest-paid Red Sox, but if he is propped up as a leader of this nine, the franchise is heading in the wrong direction.

AL East: The Yankees are 0.5 GB and the Rays are 3 GB. ... TB/NYY.