Royals continue postseason push in Boston

(SportsNetwork.com) - Yordano Ventura will try to aid Kansas City's playoff quest with a fourth straight winning start on Friday evening as the Royals play the second of four straight games against the Boston Red Sox.

Following consecutive wins over Texas, Ventura held the New York Yankees scoreless over six innings of a 2-0 win on Sunday. The right-hander yielded three hits and did walk four batters, striking out two to improve to 12-9 with a 3.25 earned run average this year.

Ventura will hope tonight's start goes more like that victory and less like the first time he faced the Red Sox in his career, which came on July 20 in Boston. Ventura lost that matchup, giving up six runs on nine hits and four walks over 4 1/3 innings.

Boston may need to get to Ventura for some runs again due to Allen Webster's struggles. The right-hander takes the mound tonight just 3-3 with a 6.47 ERA in eight starts this year.

Webster is winless in his last four starts and has failed to log at least six innings in three straight outings. Following a pair of six-run outings versus Seattle and Tampa Bay that resulted in loss, he did not factor into a 9-8 win over Toronto on Friday as he yielded four runs -- three earned -- on six hits and two walks over 5 1/3 innings.

Webster has made one previous start versus Kansas City and got a no-decision for giving up two earned runs over six innings of work.

The Royals missed a chance to extend their lead atop the American League Central on Thursday, losing 6-3 to the Red Sox. That cut Kansas City's edge over the idle second-place Detroit Tigers to just a half-game.

Boston had dropped four straight coming in but capitalized on three Royals errors and an ineffective spot-start from Liam Hendriks.

Hendriks was filling in for an injured Danny Duffy and did not make it out of the third inning. Hendriks was charged with three runs, two of those earned.

Norichika Aoki and Lorenzo Cain each had two of Kansas City's six hits

"We were struggling offensively," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "(Hendriks) just kind of lost all of his tempo in the third inning."

Will Middlebrooks had two hits and drove in a run, Jemile Weeks hit a two-run double and David Ortiz had an RBI for Boston, which has won all four of its game this season versus Kansas City.

"Anytime you give a club an extra out, you are likely walking a tightwire and that was the case on both sides tonight," said Red Sox manager John Farrell on the errors.

Clay Buchholz scattered three runs -- two earned -- over 6 1/3 innings to get the win.