The Red Sox are at it again, even with a drastically depleted lineup featuring neither the departed Adrian Gonzalez, nor the still-sore David Ortiz.
We'll keep you up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Fenway Park.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, End 11th -- No such luck. The Sox come up empty in the eleventh, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia's one-out single quickly erased by a Jose Iglesias double play ball.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, Mid 11th -- Junichi Tazawa gives the Sox three strong outs in the eleventh, sending the game to the bottom half where Mauro Gomez will try to go for his fifth his of the night.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, End 10th -- The Red Sox get their opportunity, putting Pedro Ciriaco on third with one out, but Jacoby Ellsbury can only ground into the fielder's choice out at home, and with Che-Hsuan Lin striking out behind him, the inning comes to an end with the tie intact.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, Mid 10th -- Vicente Padilla labors through the tenth, hitting Mike Moustakas to lead off the inning, but a pair of strikeouts see the Sox through to the bottom half of the inning.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, End 9th -- No walkoff forthcoming. We're headed to extra innings.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, Mid 9th -- A clean ninth for Andrew Bailey is a very nice sign for the Red Sox. They'll have a chance to win it in the bottom half.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, End 8th -- Terrible luck costs the Red Sox a lead, as zero outs becomes two when Dustin Pedroia smashes a line drive right to Eric Hosmer, who steps on first base to double off Scott Podsednik. Given that Ellsbury followed up with a double, it was a very costly bit of misfortune, leaving the Red Sox stuck in a tie that shouldn't be.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, Mid 8th -- Craig Breslow gets three outs in quick order. The Sox could've used that last inning...
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, End 7th -- Aaron Crow gets the lockdown inning after the big comeback, with two strikeouts surrounding a Mike Aviles single and caught stealing.
Red Sox 9, Royals 9, Mid 7th -- And in one awful inning the whole lead dribbles away. Two outs came with the first three batters, with Andrew Miller getting a strikeout and ground out around a single. He would lose control of the zone from there, however, surrendering a pair of walks to load the bases. An Alex Gordon single brought two home and led to Mark Melancon's entry to the game, but he only lasted for two batters, giving up a flair into right to Billy Butler and a single to Salvador Perez. Craig Breslow finally managed to end the inning, but not before surrendering a game-tying triple to Mike Moustakas.
An awful inning, to be sure, but one that's made all the easier to take by the circumstances of the season.
Red Sox 9, Royals 3, End 6th -- Mauro Gomez picks up his fourth hit of the night, but once again runs into the out at second base. He's having a weird, great night, but doesn't help all that much in a second scoreless inning from the Royals bullpen.
Red Sox 9, Royals 3, Mid 6th -- Quite the workmanlike night from Aaron Cook since his three-run first. Five innings, three hits, zero runs, one walk. The Sox will take that from the number five guy in their rotation most nights, even after the first.
Red Sox 9, Royals 3, End 5th -- The Royals finally manage to hold the Sox scoreless for an inning, with Louis Coleman getting the last out of the frame after Teaford gave up two-out singles to Pedro Ciriaco and Scott Podsednik.
Red Sox 9, Royals 3, Mid 5th -- Aaron Cook continues to power through this night after a really bad start. Four balls come on the ground, with two getting through for singles, but it's a fly ball that ends the inning for Cook without damage.
Red Sox 9, Royals 3, End 4th -- Teaford doesn't fare too much better than Aaron Cook. A rare Pedro Ciriaco walk gives the Red Sox a leadoff baserunner, and while the next two outs come quickly, the third takes rather longer. Jacoby Ellsbury slapped a single to the opposite field to put two on for Mauro Gomez, who found a hole between short and third for his third hit of the night and third RBI. Cody Ross picked up a base hit behind him to score Ellsbury, and the Sox made it a six-run lead after four.
Red Sox 7, Royals 3, Mid 4th -- The smoothest of sailing for Aaron Cook in the fourth, as the sinkerballer gets three straight groundouts to keep the Royals down for a third straight inning.
Red Sox 7, Royals 3, End 3rd -- Jeremy Guthrie's night is already over after just 2.2 innings of work. The Sox continue to pile on in the third, sending the first four batters of the innings onto the basepaths. With the bases loaded, a weak ground ball down the third base line ended up good for two runs when Guthrie made an ill-advised throw home that got away from catcher Salvador Pena. A Jarrod Saltalamacchia sacrifice fly was good for a third run before Guthrie left the game and Everett Teaford finished the inning off.
Red Sox 4, Royals 3, Mid 3rd -- Dustin Pedroia robs Alcides Escobar of a hit with a leaping grab. Given the two-out walk to Alex Gordon that followed, he can also be said to have diffused a bad situation before it even started, helping Cook grab a second scoreless inning.
Red Sox 4, Royals 3, End 2nd -- And there's some life for you! The call-ups come through to start the inning, with Mauro Gomez getting the Red Sox on the board with his first major league home run, a very deep fly ball into the Monster seats with one out. Ryan Lavarnway and Jarrod Saltalamacchia quickly add singles behind him to keep the attack rolling, and Mike Aviles caps it off by finding the Monster seats with a three-run shot that lets the Sox leapfrog the Royals in the second.
Royals 3, Red Sox 0, Mid 2nd -- Cook enjoys a much easier second inning, getting a pair of ground ball outs in a 1-2-3 frame.
Royals 3, Red Sox 0, End 1st -- No signs of life from the Sox in the first against Jeremy Guthrie. The Royals starter needs just 11 pitches to get through the inning 1-2-3, striking out Dustin Pedroia in the process.
Royals 3, Red Sox 0, Mid 1st -- If a well-rested Aaron Cook isn't that great, a short-rest Aaron Cook proves a disaster. Four straight hits start the game for the Royals, with Cook giving up plenty of hard hit balls, including a two-run Alex Gordon double to the wall. Cook manages to get couple ground balls after that, ending the inning with a double play, but it's a big hole early on for a depleted lineup to overcome.