Brett Tomko was handed the lose today as he went into the fifth inning with a 2-1 lead. He unfortunately did not have it long as the Red Sox turned a 4-spot in the bottom of the 5th inning, to end the Royals lead, and end the day for Tomko. He went 4.1 innings, gave up 7 Hits, and 5 Earned Runs. Two of those hits came in the form of homers, off the bats of Ellsbury (in the 1st inning), and Varitek (in the 5th inning). Not one of his better days on the mound.
The bullpen finished off the remainder of the game, mixing innings between Mahay, Peralta, Gobble, and Soria. They combined to give up only 5 Hits, and 1 Earned Run, not bad, considering. Soria gave up a Hit, but no runners crossed the plate, and there was never any offensive threat in the inning, he pitched back on form, as we are used to seeing him. His ERA dropped a bit to sub one, at 0.98, and looks real good.
The offense was sparse and never threatened anything of significance. They spread out 3 Runs, not scoring more than one in any single inning. They left a total of 8 men on base, and struck out a total of 7 times. The positive thing here is that the offense still came from the heart of the lineup. So that part of the offense is still producing, even though in small numbers.
Their record slips to 21-25, and they fall another game back of the Chicago White Sox, to 4.5, still 2 games out of the basement.