Ryan Hanigan drove in two runs and scored another on Jackie Bradley Jr.’s triple to help the Boston Red Sox beat Kansas City 4-1 Thursday night, ending the Royals’ five-game winning streak.
Wade Miley (10-9) left in the eighth inning, allowing just one run. The Red Sox are 5-2 under bench coach Torey Lovullo, who took over last week when manager John Farrell announced that is being treated for cancer. Mookie Betts, Travis Shaw and Xander Bogaerts had two hits apiece for Boston.
Miley allowed one run on six hits while striking out six in 7 1-3 innings. Junichi Tazawa pitched the ninth for his second save.
Salvador Perez had two of the Royals’ six hits. The AL Central leaders had won 10 of its last 12 to open a 14 1-2 game lead in the AL Central.
Danny Duffy (6-6) gave up four runs on seven hits and two walks, striking out three in five innings.
Duffy loaded the bases in the first before walking Shaw to score a run. The Red Sox made it 4-0 in the third when Hanigan singled with runners on second and third, then scored on Bradley’s triple. It was Bradley’s ninth straight hit that went for extra bases.
Bradley was batting .102 on Aug. 5 before hitting safely in 12 of the last 14 games — including a five-hit, five-run, two-homer, seven-RBI game against Seattle on Saturday.
The Red Sox have won three in a row, and they are 2-0 since bringing in former Tigers boss Dave Dombrowski as their new president of baseball operations in a front office shuffle that left general manager Ben Cherington on the outs.
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