{"id":2426021,"date":"2026-05-21T07:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2426021"},"modified":"2026-05-21T07:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:36:55","slug":"red-sox-complete-late-rally-to-sweep-royals-4-3-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/red-sox-complete-late-rally-to-sweep-royals-4-3-on-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox complete late rally to sweep Royals 4-3 on Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Kansas City Royals are pretty confident whenever Michael Wacha\u2019s turn approaches in the starting rotation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The reason? Wacha is a model of consistency. Most times, he will provide a quality start that uplifts the entire team.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Royals needed a quality start on Wednesday night. Wacha delivered six strong innings<\/a> against the Boston Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the Royals\u2019 troublesome bullpen relinquished a late lead: Red Sox star left fielder Jarren Duran hit a two-run homer<\/a> and beat KC 4-3.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNot the way we want to play right now …\u201d Royals star Salvador Perez said. \u201cYou know, nothing we can do about this one or the last three games. Tomorrow\u2019s our off day. Hopefully, we can reset our minds and come back on Friday and play hard again.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Boston (22-27) earned the series sweep. The Royals (20-30) are 14-34 against the Red Sox since the start of the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Royals have lost nine of their last 10 games<\/a> and have now lost 12 of 14 when facing left-handed starting pitching.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are frustrated, sure,\u201d Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. \u201cI mean, we don\u2019t come out here and lose games and walk away feeling good about it.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, there\u2019s no chance of that. So yeah, that\u2019s being a big-leaguer, is being able to go turn the page and go compete the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Michael Wacha deals early<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Wacha limited an aggressive Boston lineup to two runs (one earned) in his 10th start of the season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He allowed six hits, issued two walks and struck out eight. His counterpart, Boston starter Connelly Early, pitched 6 1\/3 innings and earned his fourth victory.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wacha ran into some trouble in the second inning. He allowed an RBI single to Boston\u2019s Nick Sogard and was charged with another run due to an error by KC second baseman Nick Loftin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. snags a ground ball during a game against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Kauffman Stadium. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

With the bases loaded, however, third baseman Maikel Garcia started a double play to negate a potential big inning. Wacha got the third out by retiring Red Sox shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cFelt like we had a really good plan going into it and was able to execute, for the most part, that second inning,\u201d Wacha said. \u201cI wish I could have a couple of pitches back. Just execution wise, I felt like they were the right pitch; I just did not get them to the spot I wanted them to.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wacha limited the Red Sox throughout the remainder of his start. He also got a little more help from his offense.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After team captain Salvador Perez belted his 311th career homer<\/a> in the first inning, fellow KC catcher Elias Diaz gave the Royals the lead. Diaz crushed a two-run homer off Red Sox left-handed starter Connelly Early in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was Diaz\u2019s second home run with the Royals. But that lead wouldn\u2019t last much longer once Wacha departed the game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Duran\u2019s homer gave the Red Sox the lead in the seventh. It also prevented Wacha (4-2) from earning a victory, instead saddling him with a no-decision. He owns a 2.70 ERA through 63 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a tough little stretch we have been going through here,\u201d Wacha said. \u201cBut, you know, we\u2019re all professionals and we\u2019re all high-level competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Royals at the plate: a struggle<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the two homers, the Royals came up short at the plate. They had six hits but were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perez left a runner stranded at second in the third inning. And Royals designated hitter Starling Marte did the same with two runners aboard in the sixth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\"Kansas
Kansas City Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia stares down a pitch during a game against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at Kauffman Stadium. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

In the ninth, the Royals had one more chance. After Carter Jensen saved a run from scoring with a diving tag at home plate in the top half of the frame, KC got the tying run into scoring position with one away.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

With Marte standing on second base, Red Sox closer and former Royals reliever Aroldis Chapman retired pinch-hitter Lane Thomas and Garcia to end the game.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks getting swept and losing,\u201d Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said. \u201cWe got an off-day tomorrow and just get back going.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Red Sox outscored the Royals 14-6 in this three-game series. KC hitters struck out eight times Wednesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And the Royals fell to an MLB-worst 4-12 in final games of series this season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next:<\/b> The Royals are off Thursday before beginning a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 9:45 PM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Related Stories from Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"Profile
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Jaylon Thompson<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n

Jaylon Thompson covers the Royals for The Kansas City Star. He previously covered the 2021 World Series and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jaylon is a proud alumnus of the University of Georgia.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kansas City Royals are pretty confident whenever Michael Wacha\u2019s turn approaches in the starting rotation. The reason? Wacha is a model of consistency. Most times, he will provide a quality start that uplifts the entire team. The Royals needed a quality start on Wednesday night. Wacha delivered six strong innings against the Boston Red […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2426022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2426021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Red-Sox-complete-late-rally-to-sweep-Royals-4-3-on.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2426021"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426023,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426021\/revisions\/2426023"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2426022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2426021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2426021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2426021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}