"The kid had his good stuff Sunday, Ned Yost noticed, and his good command, too.

Despite yielding a leadoff walk — in which he kept trying to make the perfect pitch — Danny Duffy escaped the first inning of the Royals' 6-1 loss to Boston unscathed. But Yost, the Royals' manager, still wasn't going to let his rookie left-hander overthink this. Not when he was matched up against one of the best pitchers on one of the best teams in the American League.

"Danny," Yost told Duffy in the dugout, "let everybody play. You don't have to strike everybody out."

Duffy had heard the whole "pitch to contact, trust your defense" mantra from managers before, but never from Yost, so he figured he'd better listen. And while the Royals still fell to the Red Sox 6-1 on Sunday, it's hard to imagine Duffy — who rebounded from a rough start in his last outing to allow only two runs on five hits in six innings — could have pitched much better.

"This is the best I've seen Duffy look in a while," Royals infielder Mike Moustakas said. "He was in the zone, making pitches when he had to, keeping guys off balance. He gave us a chance to win."

The Royals didn't, of course. But a lot of that can be attributed to the performance of Boston's own left-hander with top-notch stuff, Jon Lester. Lester, 13-6, carried a no-hitter into the fourth and allowed only one run and three hits in six innings as Boston , 77-49, took the finale of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium.

"Jon Lester, he's just bona fide," Yost said. "He's a premier pitcher in the American League, and he showed why today.""