Backed by bats, Miley twirls scoreless start
Red Sox lefty escapes few early jams, has won three of past four decisions
KANSAS CITY -- Red Sox left-hander Wade Miley definitely enjoyed having the support of his offense in Sunday afternoon's 13-2 win over the Royals in the rubber game at Kauffman Stadium.
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"Offense got some runs early and often, and kept scoring the whole game," Miley said. "Definitely makes it a lot easier to go out there and just try to throw strikes and get us back in the dugout."
Miley gave up just five hits in six scoreless frames, walking three and fanning two as he improved to 7-6.
"I thought Wade made some big pitches to get out of that fourth inning when it's still a two-run game at the time," Boston manager John Farrell said of when Kendrys Morales and Alex Gordon singled to open the fourth. "We go out and put up a five-spot, and then again came out and made some big pitches to keep momentum on our side."
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Said Miley: "I was able to make a couple of pitches in situations that we needed it and got out of some jams, but overall it was good."
Miley has won three of his past four decisions and six of his past eight. Sunday's win was also the second straight game where the offense supported him with nine or more runs
The only spot Miley didn't really like was his fastball command, which yielded three walks. But he did like what he saw from catcher Sandy Leon, who filled in for the injured Blake Swihart
"We didn't throw a lot of fastballs, but he did a good job of picking pitches in certain counts, and they were executed," Miley said. "And when they hit it hard, he was asking about it."