Royals 8, Red Sox 5 – Knoblauch sparks KC rally in ninth

? Chuck Knoblauch’s winning style is rubbing off on the Kansas City Royals.

Knoblauch, a member of three New York Yankees’ championship teams, doubled in the go-ahead run as Kansas City scored four times in the ninth inning and beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-5, Thursday night.

The win evened the Royals’ record at 4-4 and ended a streak of 267 games in which they were below .500, the longest the majors.

“The thing that I learned with the Yankees that I’d like to pass onto these guys is we came with the same attitude every day,” Knoblauch said. “Let’s win today.”

The Royals had losing records the last seven seasons and weren’t expected to do much this season. Knoblauch, however, remembers 1991 when he was a rookie with Minnesota, which exceeded expectations by winning the World Series.

“The game has changed over the past 12 years, but you still have to be optimistic,” he said.

The Royals stayed confident despite trailing 4-1 after two innings and 5-4 after Johnny Damon’s RBI triple in the eighth scored Rey Sanchez, who went 3-for-4.

Kansas City won its fourth straight series at Fenway Park, winning the last two games each time after dropping the opener.

“Instead of going in and hoping we can do things, now I think (players) are starting to believe that we can go into somebody’s house and win,” said Jason Grimsley (1-0), another former Yankee.

The ninth-inning double capped an outstanding series for Knoblauch. He hit a grand slam in the opening game, Boston’s 8-4 win Tuesday. On Wednesday, he matched his career high with three stolen bases in a 6-2 victory.

On Thursday, he came through after striking out twice and grounding out twice. One of those grounders drove in a run.

“This loss was more frustrating than last night because we took back the lead,” Boston catcher Jason Varitek said.

In the ninth, Raul Ibanez led off with a single and A.J. Hinch walked. Both moved up on a wild pitch by Ugueth Urbina (0-2) and the tying run scored on Luis Alicea’s groundout.

Knoblauch doubled for a 6-5 lead and stole third. After a walk to Neifi Perez and a passed ball, Carlos Beltran hit a two-run double.

“We have a bona fide closer and he will get the ball with the lead in the ninth,” Boston manager Grady Little said.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the second on Ibanez’s first homer of the season. The Red Sox went ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the inning when the first three batters hit safely against Chad Durbin.

Varitek and Trot Nixon singled and Sanchez doubled in a run. Another scored on Damon’s groundout before Shea Hillenbrand hit his third two-run homer in four days.

After walking Alicea with two outs in the second, Frank Castillo retired the next 11 hitters. With one out in the sixth, he walked Beltran, who went to third on Mike Sweeney’s single and scored on Michael Tucker’s groundout.

The Royals loaded the bases in the seventh against Rolando Arrojo when Ibanez walked, Hinch was hit by a pitch and Alicea reached on an infield single. One run scored on Knoblauch’s groundout, and Perez’s sacrifice fly made it 4-all.

Notes: Beltran had two stolen bases and has been successful on 49 of his last 50 attempts. … Boston’s Brian Daubach went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and a walk after going 5-for-7 in the first two games of the series. … Castillo has allowed four hits in 12 innings over his two starts. … The game was held up in the ninth when Boston trainer Jim Rowe checked home plate umpire Bruce Froemming, who was hit on the forearm when Willie Banks’ pitch got by catcher Varitek for a passed ball.