With a godawful performance with runners in scoring position, this looked like a game straight out of April.
Well, except the part about losing to the Royals.
The White Sox outhit the Royals 9-6, but went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position to pave the road to this loss. They botched several golden opportunities along the way.
Fourth inning: The Sox had runners on first and third with nobody out after back-to-back singles by Jose Abreu and Daniel Palka, but Avisail Garcia struck out, as did Nicky Delmonico, who chased ball four. Tim Anderson then flied out to center when a fly ball no longer would do.
Sixth inning: Jose Abreu came to the plate with runners on second and third after Yoan Moncada and Yolmer Sanchez came up with two-out hits, but he got sawed off for a groundout.
Seventh inning: Kevan Smith led off with a single, but Rick Renteria had Adam Engel bunt with two strikes again after fouling off the first two, and he struck out. Moncada then got rung up on a pitch outside, and Sanehez struck out, too.
Eighth inning: Abreu led off with a double, followed by three strikeouts.
In the end, all they could muster was a Delmonico solo shot off Brad Keller in the second, and that wasn't enough for Dylan Covey. Covey threw better than he'd been throwing, taking a 1-0 lead into the sixth. That's when he hit a wall, giving up a one-out homer to Alex Gordon, then a two-out double to Lucas Duda and an RBI single to Jorge Bonifacio.
That gave KC a lead it wouldn't relinquish, although it added an insurance run the ninth thanks to a wild Luis Avilan, who issued a leadoff walk and a two-out walk. Juan Minaya came in and gave up a flared single to Alcides Escobar to make a potential comeback even tougher.
Bullet points:
*The Royals bullpen struck out eight batters over four innings.
*Avisail Garcia had a rough game, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
*The especially dumb thing about Engel's bunt? He'd singled in his first two at-bats.
Record: 45-77 | Box score
