Royals' bullpen continues as one tough unit

KANSAS CITY -- Royals fans have come to expect the bullpen to be phenomenal each night.

And so does manager Ned Yost, who hardly even notices any more just how good he's got it. Well, he sort of notices.

"This is what we've come to expect," Yost said after his bullpen tossed 3 2/3 innings of shutout ball to preserve a 7-4 win over the Red Sox on Saturday night.

"That's what our bullpen is able to do is to shut good teams down. I'm just managing to get into the sixth inning. Most teams I've been on, you just try to get to the ninth inning. But here it's the sixth inning."

Yost went to left-hander Franklin Morales with a runner on third and one out in the sixth. Morales got a strikeout. Then, Yost brought in Ryan Madson -- another strikeout.

After that it was the familiar "HDH" formula of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Each threw a shutout inning and the Royals won for the 39th time.

"It's the best bullpen in baseball," starter Edinson Volquez marveled.

But even the bullpen doesn't really stop to notice how good it really is.

"Nah, the time to do that is the offseason," Herrera said. "I remember last offseason looking at highlights and thinking 'Wow, we're really good.' But you don't do that now.

"Now you just go out and do your job. And everyone is doing their job."