Sox Lose 3 of 4, Still in First Place

Bad news - Sox lose 3 times out of 4 to a red hot KC team. Good news - Rays lose 5 straight & Sox pick up a game in the standings. Yesterday was a case of seeing-eye ground balls by the Royals who beat the Sox 4-3. Once again Jon Lackey pitched well enough to win, but he didn't. Will Middlebrooks' return has been a good one with him contributing hits in each of his 1st 2 games back. Brandon Workman, who got the lone win on Saturday, & Drake Britton are young bullpen arms that are developing into steady innings of work & giving the tandem of Tazawa & Uehara some much needed rest. Either Ellsbury, Pedroia or Ortiz usually stays hot in the lineup & this series it was Ells with multi-hit games. So don't fret, fans. Things are not bad when you have the 3rd best record in all of baseball. And you have a 3 game lead over the Rays who have 5 extra games to play down the stretch. Monday's off day is a good breather to get ready to play division foes in Toronto & then home versus New York this week. With any consistency from the Sox starting pitching we should have a 4-2 week.