Alex Cora kept watching the Red Sox hammer pitches right at the Kansas City Royals during the first few innings Tuesday night, and the Boston skipper was confident that eventually some of them would find their way through.
Eduardo Núñez finally solved the problem by depositing a pitch over the fence.
His pinch-hit, three-run homer in the eighth inning broke open what had been a nip-and-tuck game, and the Red Sox went on to beat the Royals 8-3 to open a grueling stretch of 17 games in 16 days.
Left-hander Chris Sale (1-7, 4.35 ERA) tries to bounce back from three straight shaky starts when he takes the mound for Boston on Wednesday night. RHP Jakob Junis (4-5, 5.35) starts for Kansas City.