The schedule was supposed to get easier for the White Sox, but instead, the losses are only getting harder to take.
A leadoff walk by Reynaldo López came around score via a Freddy Fermin safety squeeze to send the White Sox an ugly series loss to the Royals, who opened the week just 3-16 against Kauffman Stadium. After four games with the Sox, they've doubled that win total.
López opened the inning by walking Nick Pratto on six pitches. He didn't let one of Kansas City's hottest hitters beat him, but that just means lesser ones did. After a strikeout, Matt Duffey poked a single to right field to put runners on the corners, and that's when Fermin sprung a bunt that got just far enough away from Seby Zavala to score Pratto standing.
You could say that the White Sox didn't make it easy for the Royals, and you'd only say it because the White Sox made it very easy in the other two losses.
The Sox trailed 3-1 entering the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman retired the first two batters without incident. But Andrew Vaughn flipped a first-pitch fastball to right field to keep the inning alive, and Carlos Pérez (pinch-hitting for Gavin Sheets) did the same to center.
That brought Luis Robert Jr. to the plate, and he fell behind 0-2 on fastballs. Chapman missed low and in with a third fastball, but when he tried going offspeed, he left it up and on the outer half. Robert was early, but he kept the barrel back long enough to flick it over third base and onto the left-field line. Vaughn scored from second, and Jake Marisnick (pinch-running for Carlos Pérez) scored from first to tie the game.
But the comeback only served to remove Mike Clevinger from the hook. He threw a quality start despite the typically underwhelming components -- two strikeouts against two walks, and just eight whiffs on 92 pitches. He gave up a solo shot to Classy Michael Massey in the second inning -- Massey's two homers on the season have come in the last two games -- but he avoided larger problems until the third time through.
The game was tied at 1 in the fourth when MJ Melendez led off with a single. Andrew Benintendi was able to catch Edward Oliveras' deep drive to left against the wall, but after a Pratto walk, he couldn't do anything with Maikel Garcia's liner to left, and Pratto scored from first, just ahead of the relay, for the first of two walk-then-runs.
Still, you'd think that kind of effort would've been good enough against Brady Singer, who entered the game with an 8.82 ERA. Even the Athletics -- the Athletics -- roughed him up the last time out.
Instead, Singer lowered his ERA to 7.71 with six innings of one-run ball. The White Sox only had one leadoff batter reach all game, which limited their opportunities with runners in scoring position. They batted .500 in that department, but the problem was that was only 2-for-4, as both of their rallies came with two outs. They managed to tie it up in the third when Benintendi doubled, then scored on Vaughn's single.
Their only other threat in the first eight innings resulted in an injury. Yasmani Grandal doubled off the right-center wall with two outs in the second inning, but he appeared to tweak his hamstring rounding first. He stayed in the game, but when he came to the plate and singled with one out, his leg once again barked on him as he motored to first, and that's when Seby Zavala replaced him.
Bullet points:
*Lenyn Sosa had a hard-luck day, as Jackie Bradley Jr. flagged down two deep drives to center on the warning track, including one where he turned the wrong way.
*Bradley also robbed Benintendi of a single with a fantastic diving catch in shallow center, which was revenge for Vaughn stealing a hit from Bradley with a diving stop at first.
*The game was delayed an hour by rain.
*The White Sox are now just one game ahead of the Royals, and 8½ back of the Twins.
