White Sox 9, Royals 3: Seven in the seventh

When Alcides Escobar didn’t keep the glove down on Yolmer Sanchez’s chopper to short with a runner on first and nobody on in the sixth, it was the Royals’ first error in 16 games and 153 innings.

One pitch later, it all fell apart. Jason Adam came out of the bullpen, grooved a fastball, and Jose Abreu smoked a three-run homer to immediately change the storyline of the game from “they sucked in the clutch” to “spread it on.”

Adam had problems with first pitches. His night ended one pitch after a mound visit, when he piped another fastball to Nicky Delmonico, and Delmonico got every bit of it for the second three-run blast of the inning.

The White Sox ran away with this game by scoring nine unanswered runs, and Escobar’s error shows just how delicate the Royals’ house of cards is.

Prior to the seventh, it was setting up to be James Shields’ 15th loss of the season, and a classic one. The Royals strung together five consecutive productive plate appearances with one out in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Shields struck out Lucas Duda to end the inning, and returned to the dugout exasperated with himself.

Those were the only runs Shields allowed during a typically sturdy quality start. He allowed six hits and two walks while striking out five and kept the ball inside the park, which is the idea.

The Sox couldn’t muster much support for him through the first two-thirds of this game against Jakob Junis, outside of Tim Anderson. Anderson had a tremendous night, going 3-for-3 with a triple, double, two stolen bases and his first unintentional walk in 161 plate appearances.

While the Sox struggled with runners in scoring position, Anderson kept making it simple to drive him in. They stranded him after his one-out triple in the second, but he didn’t give up on them. In the fourth, he drew a walk with two outs, stole second and scored on Nicky Delmonico’s single through the right side.

And in the sixth, after a double that was nearly a carbon copy of his triple — a deep drive that beat Alex Gordon to the wall — he stole third and came home on Delmonico’s chopper to narrow KC’s lead to 3-2.

Anderson and Delmonico teamed up once more in the seventh. With runners on first and second, Anderson tried to check his swing on a slider, but ended up sort of flinging the ball into shallow left field for an RBI single. That’s when pitching coach Cal Eldred came to the mound, after which Delmonico cranked the homer for his third, fourth and fifth RBIs of the game.

Bullet points:

* Yoan Moncada returned to the leadoff spot and had a nice night, going 1-for-4 with a walk and zero strikeouts. One of his outs was a ripped liner to first.

*Avisail Garcia was lifted after two innings after what the team called a manager’s decision. It’s hard to tell the reason, because while he didn’t sprint down the line on his inning-ending flyout to right in the first inning, he had Matt Davidson in front of him.

*The Sox won the war on the basepaths, going 3-for-3 against Sal Perez while Omar Narvaez gunned down Whit Merrifield on the Royals’ only attempt.

Record: 45-78 | Box score

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

So, um, why did Dylan Cease only pitch one inning tonight?

sgp2204

All I saw on Twitter was that he threw 40 pitches and the weather was crappy. It sounds like they just didn’t think it was worth it for him to go back out – at least that’s what I’m hoping for.

jose robcada

also wouldnt be surprised if hes really close to an innings limit as milb season is coming to close in couple weeks, hes way past his previous highs, i doubt they want him going much past 130 this year. him walking 2 in the first and throwing 40 pitches prolly seemed like perfect opportunity to limit that

Right Size Wrong Shape

Thanks. I hope it’s nothing to worry about. I know someone mentioned that this start had been pushed back a few days, and the way this season has been going I’m just holding my breath. Would it be that hard for the team to put out a brief statement when something like this happens? They just leave it open to speculation and everybody (me) freaks out.

sgp2204

Just clicking through YouTube and saw the full 2018 Perfect Game All-American Classic was uploaded a few days ago. Watching it now, and man, there’s a lot of high end talent. I still think the pick is Rutschman if he’s available wherever we pick, but I would be absolutely thrilled with any of Witt/Abrams/Hinds. Either way, next year’s draft will be really telling. I think the Sox now have enough high level talent working their way up to the higher levels that it will finally make sense to take a shot on some high end HS talent. 

jose robcada

ya i feel like they almost have to take a hs player with how loaded we are at almost every position unless they go for a sp… only weak spot is 1b and u dont take a 1st basemen that high
(im assuming either moncada goes to 3rd after madrigal promotes/burger pans out/or we sign a guy)

lil jimmy

You know Nick. He’ll go college in the first round. Maybe he takes a high school player in the second.
Fangraghs has eight college position players in their top ten.

PauliePaulie

Glad Renteria continues to show up certain players. The first dozens times he did it really seems to have worked wonders for the guys involved.

Right Size Wrong Shape

Really building that trade value.

Marty34

Without knowing the details, Avi might not have been 100% truthful with Renteria if he was asked if he was healthy enough to play. If that’s the case I don’t blame Renteria for taking him out.

PauliePaulie

Cliffs notes version- Avi told him he felt a click in his knee (the one he’s having surgery on) coming out of the box. RR said if he’s healthy enough to play, he’s healthy enough to hustle.

To me the benchings haven’t been evenly distributed and the players have regressed.
Struggling to find any reasons for him to continue as their manager.

ForsterFTOG

He’s cheap and he does what he’s told by his superiors.

Marty34

You counting Cooper as one of his superiors? Anyway, Avi has got to come clean on his health. In this instance I think Renteria had a right to take him out.

Gutteridge70

Nice to finally pound someone at home… even if it is the pathetic Royals.