Chris Sale shut down the Kansas City Royals while pitching into the ninth inning, and a rag-tag bunch of Boston Red Sox filling in for injured starters pounded their way to an 8-3 victory Tuesday night that moved them into first place in the AL East.
Sale (9-3) gave up a homer to Mike Moustakas in the second and a two-run shot to Jorge Bonifacio in the ninth before departing two outs shy of his second consecutive complete game. He allowed four hits and fanned 10, pushing his major league-leading strikeout total to 146 this season.
More importantly, he got a win after going the distance in a 1-0 loss to Philadelphia last week.
Xander Bogaerts and Sandy Leon each drove in a pair of runs for Boston, which got plenty of production from a lineup missing Pablo Sandoval, Dustin Pedroia and Mitch Moreland to various injuries.
