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(Sports Network) - Bartolo Colon makes his return to the major-league mound this evening and his first start as a member of the Boston Red Sox, who will try to extend an impressive home win streak in tonight's clash with the Kansas City Royals.

Colon won the 2005 American League Cy Young Award while with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim but has been plagued by injuries in each of the past two seasons, which led to the Angels opting not to re-sign the stocky right-hander in the offseason. Colon inked a minor league deal with the Red Sox in February and began this season with Triple-A Pawtucket, where the veteran went 2-0 with a sparkling 0.64 earned run average in three starts.

The native Dominican, who turns 35 on Saturday, also missed some time this year with an oblique strain but appeared plenty healthy in his most recent start. He yielded just one hit and walked none over six shutout innings to lead Pawtucket to a victory at Buffalo this past Thursday.

Colon is 14-7 with a 4.88 ERA in 24 career starts against Kansas City and faces a Royals squad that has mustered little offense in the first two games of this series. After being no-hit by the Sox' Jon Lester on Monday, Kansas City was handcuffed by rookie Justin Masterson in last night's 2-1 Boston triumph.

Making only his second major league start, Masterson limited the Royals to one run and three hits while recording five strikeouts over the first 6 1/3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon preserved the youngster's first career big league win and picked up his 13th save of the year by getting the game's final four outs.

Boston gave Masterson all the support he would need with two second-inning runs as the Red Sox won their fifth consecutive contest and eighth in a row at Fenway Park. Julio Lugo brought home Kevin Youkilis with a sacrifice fly for the first tally and Coco Crisp later came through with an RBI double.

Kansas City lost for the third time in its last four games despite a solid showing from starter Gil Meche (3-6), who worked seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits while notching eight strikeouts.

Alex Gordon collected three hits and John Buck had an RBI single for the Royals.

Kansas City hopes to get back on track tonight behind Brett Tomko, who halted a personal six-start winless streak with six solid innings to beat Florida on Friday. The well-traveled right-hander surrendered just two runs and five hits in the Royals' 7-6 decision over the Marlins.

Tomko had endured four losses and two no-decisions prior to breaking through on Friday and registered a 6.61 ERA over that dry spell.

The 35-year-old has faced Boston four times previously, twice as a starter, and is 1-1 with a 7.02 ERA against the Red Sox. He has been rocked for 12 runs and 15 hits over 5 2/3 career innings at Fenway Park.

Kansas City had won eight of its last 12 meetings with Boston prior to Monday and Tuesday's defeats. The Royals had taken two of three matchups against the Sox at Fenway in each of the last two years.