James Paxton tossed 5 1/3 innings to help the Boston Red Sox defeat the visiting Kansas City Royals 2-0 Thursday night.

Paxton (7-3) allowed six hits, struck out six and didn't walk a batter. Relievers John Schreiber (two-thirds of an inning), Josh Winckowski (one inning), Chris Martin (one inning) and Kenley Jansen (one inning) helped preserve the shutout.

Jansen didn't allow a baserunner in the ninth to earn his 26th save. He recorded two strikeouts.

Boston scored a run in the fourth and one in the fifth. Adam Duvall and Alex Verdugo had the game's only RBIs.

The victory gave Boston three wins in the four-game series against Kansas City, which has lost five of its last six games.

Alec Marsh (0-6) took the loss. Marsh allowed two runs on six hits in five innings of relief. He walked two and struck out three.

Maikel Garcia had two hits for the Royals. His single in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 14 games.

The Royals had one hit in each of the first seven innings -- and seven hits in the game -- but were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Kansas City struck out 12 times.

Kansas City's best chance to score came in the seventh inning, when the Royals had runners on first and second with one out. Dairon Blanco and Garcia each struck out for the final two outs in the inning.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Triston Casas singled, moved to third on a Trevor Story double and scored on Verdugo's sacrifice fly.

Boston made it 2-0 in the fifth. Duvall's two-out double scored Pablo Reyes, who reached on a double earlier in the inning.

Reyes batted in the leadoff spot for the first time this season and collected two hits in the win. Before Thursday's game, Reyes hadn't hit higher than sixth in the batting order this season. Duvall also had two hits.

--Field Level Media