KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Justin Maxwell has provided a huge boost for Kansas City since coming over from the Astros. Maxwell homered and then singled twice in a six-run sixth as the Kansas City Royals rallied for a 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night. The Royals have won 15 of their past 17 games to move seven games above .500, matching their best record of the season. They are 4 1-2 games back in the wild-card standings. "Its just team chemistry, no matter whos at the plate or whos on the mound, we all have each others backs," Maxwell said. "Thats the main thing." Maxwell, who the Royals acquired on July 31 from the Astros for a minor league pitcher, homered leading off the second. With the Royals trailing 6-3 in the sixth, he led off the inning with a single. The Royals sent 11 men to the plate in the inning against Red Sox pitchers Jake Peavy, Drake Britton and Pedro Beato. "I led off, just trying to get on base, not do too much," Maxwell said. "It was just one good at-bat after another good at-bat. I think thats how you roll." Maxwell was making his first start in centre and only his fourth start since joining the Royals, but manager Ned Yost promises he will be seeing plenty more action. "Hes got the opportunity to change the game with one swing," Yost said. "Well keep running him out there." Peavy, who was making his second Red Sox start since being acquired in a July 30 trade from the Chicago White Sox, yielded singles to Maxwell, Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar to start the inning. Escobars RBI single finished Peavy. "With the way Jake had settled in, he had good innings in the fourth and fifth, and wed gained momentum for ourselves, he probably had one inning left with his pitch count," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "Im not going to say it was surprising, but he left some balls up and they made him pay. "The put away pitch was a challenge for how they put the ball in play and go the other way. We just couldnt stop the momentum in the sixth." Eric Hosmers two-run single with two outs off Britton put the Royals on top 7-6. David Lough contributed a sacrifice fly, while Billy Butler doubled home Hosmer. Maxwells second single in the inning scored Butler with the final run. Mike Napoli, a career .368 hitter off Royals right-hander Ervin Santana, cleared the bases with a two-out third inning three-run double. That ended Santanas night. He gave up six runs on nine hits, including David Ortizs 22nd home run in the third, in 3 2/3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. "Its the best feeling," Santana said. "It doesnt matter how we got there, we won." Peavy lasted five innings, plus three batters, allowing six runs on 10 hits. "I just didnt make a whole lot of consistent pitches," Peavy said. "I had Maxwell 0-2 and threw him a changeup and he did a nice job (to start the sixth). "Youve got to win games when your offence scores six. I didnt feel good stuff-wise or control-wise. They battled and put the ball in play for being as free-swinging as they are. My stuff wasnt very sharp." Francisley Bueno (1-0), who was just promoted Thursday from Triple-A Omaha, picked up the victory with 2 1-3 scoreless innings. He has two big league wins, both against the Red Sox. Britton (1-1) was charged with the loss. The Royals 16-hit attack, included three hits each by Butler, Hosmer and Maxwell. Alex Gordon had two hits, including his 12th home run. Greg Holland worked the ninth for his 31st save in 33 chances. "It was a fantastic win," Yost said. "A night when Ervin didnt have his command, but our offence picked him up. Our bullpen again was dynamite." Notes: Red Sox C David Ross, who has been out since June 18 with a concussion, could start rehabbing with Tuesday with Double-A Portland if he gets the final approval. He has been cleared by Dr. Michael Collins, a concussion specialist in Pittsburgh, and the results were forwarded to Major League Baseball, which has the final word. If all goes well, Ross could be activated Aug. 19, the first day he is eligible. ... Royals All-Star C Salvador Perez is progressing in his on-the-field activities and manager Ned Yost is hopeful hell get the clearance to play Sunday, the first day he is eligible. ... After an appeal from the Royals, MLB reversed two Mets scorings calls from Sunday, giving Alex Gordon and Lorenzo Cain hits on "sun balls" that were first called errors. Vans Old Skool Sale Cheap . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. Clearance Old Skool Uk . -- Mike Smith never saw his first NHL goal go in. http://www.oldskoolclearanceuk.com/ .J. -- Seven games into a disappointing season, New York Giants defensive catalyst Jason Pierre-Paul is getting the feeling hes back. Vans Old Skool Clearance . -- Ohio States Urban Meyer has never had any issue acclimating to the biggest stages in college football. Cheap Vans Old Skool For Sale . Halifax beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 7-5 on the strength of two goals apiece from Nikolaj Ehlers, Matt Murphy and Brent Andrews. Jonathan Drouin also scored and had three assists while Zachary Fucale made 17 saves for the Mooseheads (16-8-0), who led 6-1 after two periods. We take a look at the reaction from around the grounds after the results of round 7 in the Aviva Premiership.Northampton Saints 23-20 Gloucester RugbyNorthampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder:?It was a close game, Gloucester showed some really good line speed in defence and put us under pressure. They have gone back to basics a little bit and they kicked well, particularly from nine. We didnt control the ball, we conceded a couple of tries which were loose, but we got there in the end.We are not playing at the top of our game, but we have the players, we have done it before in the past. There are lots of parts to our game that we need to improve on and I am confident we can do that. Louis Picamoles has continued to impress, some of his offloading skills are sublime; the pass to Kessell was outstanding today. He is world-class.Gloucester director of rugby David Humphreys: I thought we deserved to win the game. Our game plan was good and our defence was incredible, but credit to Northampton they found a way to win. It is something we have talked about since the start of the season, there has been so many games like that. Ultimately we have conceded too many penalties at scrum time.At the time Picamoles try felt like a double movement, but that was not the moment that decided the game, we still did enough to win the game. There were a couple of big penalty decisions that were crucial.Saracens 24-10 Leicester TigersSaracens director of rugby Mark McCall:?It was massively frustrating the bonus points didnt come. In the first half we showed some really good signs about how good we can be and the standards we want to achieve. We attacked really well. We made a couple of errors along the way, but they were forced by Leicesters defence.The half-time score of 17-3 was about right, but when we got to 24-3 we were really sloppy. We had the ball for 15 minutes but did our own thing when the job wasnt done. Its a big lesson for us because we didnt get the job done that we wanted to. We spent the last 15-20 minutes defending which is not what we wanted to do. We should have got five points and its frustrating that we didnt.?Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill: Im pleased we stayed in the battle and were playing for the bonus point in the end, but the first half was difficult for us and they controlled the game well. At 24-3 down we had nothing else but to throw the kitchen sink at them. We did that and stopped them getting their bonus point. We can build on that spirit and effort, but it was still disappointing.Harlequins 36-14 Worcester WarriorsHarlequins director of rugby John Kingston: I wasnt really bothered about Joe (Marler) as he had 10 minutes rest for the yellow card and hasnt had a lot of rugby. I was also keen to bring Mark Lambert on for his 200th appearance, so it was a balancing act for the two props. Joe is a combative sort who sails close to the wind as hes that type of player.We scored very early on but we got too ambitious and impatient on the ball and defensively we werent as intense as we can be and being just one per cent off at this level can be enough. I got some messages across at half-time and thereafter we moved skilfully through the gears and by the end we looked a really good side.Worcester head coach Carl Hogg:Ben (Teo) was outstanding today after a somewhat stuttering start to his Warriors career. Hes a class act and it is important for us as he gives a different dynamic to our back line. We put Quins under pressure in the first half and we needed to nail that attacking line-out when they were down to 14 men and then we would have put them under more pressure.After the restart, Quins scored two quick tries and the game was a different contest as we conceded a few soft tries out there. That 10-minute window early in the second half saw us lose control and we need to be more robust when the pressure comes on.Wasps 31-6 Newcastle FalconsWasps director of rugby Dai Young: It was a bit of a tired and flat performance and the scoreline flattered us. We didnt show much control today and were fortunate to get a bonus-point win.dddddddddddd However I never thought we were going to lose the game but it could have gone to the wire. Jimmy (Gopperth) is worth his weight in gold as he is totally comfortable wherever he plays and makes my job a lot easier.?I thought the medias choice (of Joe Launchbury for man of the match) was right for a change, as Joe was outstanding as he always comes up with big moments in the game. Hes coming into form at the right time and with injuries to the squad theres a real opportunity for him to get his England jersey back.?Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richard:?It was another questionable TMO decision for I spoke to Simon (Hammersley who was sin-binned after 17 minutes) at half-time and he said that he just went for the tackle and therefore its a little bit disappointing. The scoreline doesnt reflect the effort we put in as our defence was outstanding to make it a difficult game for them. We created as many chances as they did but we didnt take them and a little bit more accuracy would have made a big difference.Exeter 10-13 BathExeter head coach Rob Baxter:?I am disappointed and frustrated, but we can start to set ourselves some new challenges in a way. I dont mean we are going to give up on having a good season, but the challenges now are a little bit more like a test of character. When you have a tight game, there are lots of things you can do.One of the first things most people do is start looking for some kind of excuse. But what I want the players to do is be a little bit more accurate in everything we do. If every player makes one less error each over the next three games, you probably win three tight games. That is what we are going to talk about. We got a bit of a nice roll on last season. This is a different challenge, and it just feels like we need to start pushing things on.Bath rugby director Todd Blackadder:?We kept our structure at the end, and Georges pass to Roko was the sign of a great decision. When you need your big guys to step up, they stepped up and did the job. I thought George was outstanding today. You are always going to miss the odd kick, but he kept attacking the line and looking for work. It was a master-class from him.We are not getting carried away. We are just enjoying the battles every week. We are not the complete side by a long way, but we showed fantastic character. It was good gutsy stuff.?Bristol Rugby 13-31 Sale SharksBristol director of rugby Andy Robinson: Our players kept going right to the final whistle but that is our worst performance. We have got to be better defensively and use the Anglo-Welsh games coming up to see if we can get a victory which will give a bit of confidence to everyone. For 25 minutes of this match, we had a couple of opportunities that we did not take. We turned too much ball over in the contact area. Defensively we dropped off and this is the nature of the Premiership in that you have to perform for more than 25 minutes. I feel for the supporters because we are in a slight hole. Robinson continued: This is solvable and we are confident we can achieve that. At the end, while there will be anger and frustration, life is for living. We have to understand the position we would be in. There is a long way to go and we are here to fight and perform. And, after nine successive defeats in all competitions this season, Robinson is not deflated. My confidence is fine.Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond: Mike Haley has the x-factor. He is good under the high ball and is a very illusive runner. He is ungainly looking now and again but he breaks tackles and is difficult to bring down. Eddie has brought him into the 33-man squad to have a look at him at the highest level so I am sure Mike wont let anyone down if he gets a chance.I dont expect bonus points in this competition. If you get them, it is a bonus. We took a couple of head knocks early doors but from this Monday, we are picking from a full-strength squad with everyone back from injury. ' ' '