BOSTON — Bobby Witt Jr. and MJ Melendez each had solo home runs, Cole Ragans allowed one run over seven innings, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Boston Red Sox 6-1 on Friday night for their fourth consecutive victory.

Adam Frazier, Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez all added RBI for Kansas City, which opened the three-game series a game behind Boston for the AL’s final wild-card spot.

It was the 16th homer of the season for Witt, an All-Star who will be competing in Monday’s Home Run Derby.

Ragans (6-6) struck out seven and allowed four hits to earn his first victory since June 24 at Miami.

Ceddanne Rafaela had an RBI double for the Red Sox.

Cooper Criswell (3-4) threw a career-high 104 pitches over six innings, yielding eight hits and five runs, but only two – including Witt’s home run – were earned.

The Royals opened the game with three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs, and then took a 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly by Perez. But Criswell got Michael Massey on a groundout and Hunter Renfroe on a flyout to get out of the inning.

Criswell’s luck didn’t last.

In the second inning, Kansas City took advantage of a fielding error by first baseman Romy Gonzalez, plus a walk and hit batter by Criswell to add three unearned runs and increase the lead to 4-0.