At least for one night Sox fans can exhale and refrain from all their Adam Dunn bashing. Just about all of the 2011 season fans have been begging for the benching of Dunn or the trading of Dunn and home or away would shower him with a chorus of boo’s. In Monday’s series opener with the Royals, Dunn hit a two-run homer to give the Sox a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Nobody can say if this will be the slump buster Dunn needed or if it was just one good game and will begin to struggle again tomorrow. At least for Monday’s game, Dunn and Sox fans have something to celebrate.
Kansas City got off to an early 3-0 lead on the Sox Monday evening. Jeff Francoeur hit a two-run homer in the first and Billy Butler added an RBI single in the the third. The first three innings it looked like the Sox bats would be silenced again by an average pitcher. In the fourth the Sox got one run on a double play groundout. Ramon Castro then homered in the fifth to pull the Sox to within one and then Adam Dunn hit a towering homer to right to give the Sox the lead.
Before the crowd could even stop cheering, Eric Hosmer tied the game on a leadoff homer off Sergio Santos. In the bottom of the ninth the Sox got two on with two outs when Aaron Crow was called for a balk allowing the winning run to score and give the Sox a 5-4 win.
Mark Buehrle got the start for the Sox Monday. After a shaky start, Buehrle settled down to go seven innings allowing three runs on seven hits. Sergio Santos blew the save in the ninth, but earned the victory to improve to 3-3 on the season.
Jeff Francis pitched well for the Royals in the series opener. Francis went six innings and allowed two runs on seven hits. Aaron Crow, the Royals All-Star representative, gave up three runs in an inning and two thirds to earn the loss and drop his record to 2-2.
Game two of the series will be Tuesday evening.