Royals vs Red Sox (7/16-7/18)

Game 1: Kason Gabbard continued to make a case to keep his spot on the Red Sox roster when Curt Schilling returns from the disabled list. Gabbard has a strong outing before the All Star Break against the Detroit Tigers and followed it up with a Complete Game 3-hit shutout on Monday night against the Royals. Gabbard struck out 8 and walked 1 as he appeared to be in complete control of all of his pitches.

Dustin Pedroia started the scoring for the Red Sox with a solo homer in the 4th inning. Manny Ramirez would later hit a solo shot of his own before David Ortiz wrapped a 2-run homer around the Pesky Pole. The homerun by Ortiz would give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead which turned out to be the final score.

The Yankees beat Toronto on Monday night, so they remain 9 games behind the Red Sox for 1st place in the AL East.

Game 2: The Red Sox lost an ugly game to the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night by the score of 9-3. Tim Wakefield was ineffective as he allowed 6 runs over 6.1 innings. Leo Nunez started for the Royals and pitched 4 innings while allowing 1 earned run. Zack Greinke received the win since Nunez failed to pitch 5 innings.

Julio Lugo and Mike Lowell had 3 hits each and were the bright spots in an otherwise terrible night. John Buck and Billy Butler did the damage with their bats for the Royals, they each knocked in 2 runs.

With the loss, the Red Sox are now only 8 games ahead of the Yankees who beat Toronto tonight.

Game 3: Lately it seems that the Red Sox are getting unlucky when it comes to 1-run ballgames. The Red Sox are actually 0-7 in their last 7 games that were decide by just a run.

Julian Tavarez didn't help the cause and may have pitched himself out of a rotation spot with another poor performance. The bullpen did a nice job picking him up, but the offense fell one run short.

Manny Ramirez had a solo homerun and Julio Lugo had an RBI double to keep the Red Sox in the game. In the 9th inning with a 1-run deficit, David Ortiz reached with 2 outs in the inning which brought the go-ahead run to the plate. Unfortunately, Manny Ramirez lost a relatively short battle with Octavio Dotel when he popped up to end the game and give the Royals another victory.

The Yankees won again tonight, and with the Red Sox loss they are now only 7 games out of 1st place in the AL East.

Notes: Tavarez may be on his way back to the bullpen thanks to another poor start and the emergence of Kason Gabbard. Curt Schilling is due back soon and will obviously reclaim his spot in the rotation. Tim Wakefield has been killing the Red Sox lately as well and it is not out of the realm of possibility that the Red Sox will have both Jon Lester and Kason Gabbard in the rotation by the end of the season. If that were to happen, Tavarez and Wakefield would both be relegated to the bullpen.

On Deck: The Red Sox begin a 4-game series with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night. Daisuke Matsuzaka will look to pull the Red Sox out of their slump and he will be opposed by Javier Vazquez.