"How about this? The Royals put aside their bullpen miseries from earlier in the week Friday night by staging a nice little rally in a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

Rick Ankiel's two-out, two-run bloop single to the opposite field in the eighth inning capped the comeback from a 3-0 deficit.

That single also punctuated the first four-hit game of Ankiel's career and atoned for an earlier base-running blunder. It further enabled the Royals to shake any lingering feelings of being hard-done after two suspect calls by home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook.

"I feel great," Ankiel said. "I feel like every time we can come back and take the lead when we're down, it just improves our team. Inside, we need to feel we can come back. Huge."

Also huge: A beleaguered bullpen caught its breath by working three scoreless innings behind Kyle Davies after surrendering 14 runs in 9 1/3 innings to Detroit over the three previous games.

Joakim Soria rebounded from a blown save Wednesday by pitching around a leadoff single in the Boston ninth. John Parrish, 1-0, got the victory for stranding two runners in the eighth inning after replacing Juan Cruz."