For the first time in 15 tries, the White Sox have won a game in Kansas City.
"I don't even know about that," said Edgar Quero.
"As they say, we've lost a lot of games straight here and finally we get a W," said Seranthony Domínguez, who seemed...recently informed. "And I hope we can come back tomorrow and get another W."
The White Sox offense could only scrape together two runs, but thanks to Anthony Kay and the White Sox's three best relievers, only one run turned out to be necessary. They allowed their share of traffic, but a well-rounded brand of run prevention allowed them to record their first win at Kauffman Stadium since Sept. 6, 2023, which was also the first win of the Chris Getz Era.
A second win at Kauffman under the Getz administration took longer than anybody could've imagined, and wasn't a given until the final strike.
The ninth inning opened with Bobby Witt Jr. batting fourth, but Seranthony Domínguez set the stage for a showdown with the final boss after opening the inning with a four-pitch walk to Isaac Collins. Luisangel Acuña tracked down Kyle Isbel's deep fly, and Domínguez blew a full-count fastball past Maikel García to bring Witt to the plate representing the tying run, which is at least preferable to the winning run.
In the end, he was neither. Domínguez disposed of him in three pitches, as Witt fouled off an up-and-away sweeper for strike one, looked at a 99-mph sinker on the outside corner for strike two, and tipped a well-executed sweeper into Edgar Quero's mitt for the final out.
""I was just a little wild, off my control," Domínguez said. "Right after that, I talked to myself and said 'Throw strikes, do your thing.'"
His second save as a White Sox preserved the first Chicago win for Kay, who struck out six around six baserunners over 5⅔ shutout innings.
Kay started wobbly, as he couldn't throw anything besides a fastball for strikes, but he had two things going for him. The first was a lively fastball, which averaged 96.3 mph and topped out at 98.4, which helped him power through the Kansas City lineup the first time through, even if late-swing fouls led to longer counts.
"I’m not trying too hard to let it eat like that," Kay said. "It was coming out good today and we had some good results. Yeah, you have a little bit more confidence when it’s 97, 98, compared to 93, 94."
"That guy has some good shit," said Quero.
The second was that he eventually figured out how to locate his slider, which gave him a different look the second time through, and allowed him to make up for some lost ground in the efficiency department. He tied an MLB career high with 5⅔ innings, and only a two-out Lane Thomas single and a hit by pitch on Jac Caglianone kept him from completing six, and also earned him a brief staredown.
"Those guys like to chirp a little bit it, seems like," Kay said. "I don’t think we are going to take that anymore. We are going to go right at them."
Grant Taylor, free to work in leverage since Kay started the game on his own, came in to strand the two runners with a flyout, then pitched a scoreless seventh thanks to a great diving stop by Chase Meidroth that stranded two runners. Jordan Leasure handled the eighth with a little less drama, setting the stage for Domínguez to close the door for good.
While White Sox pitchers posted zeroes, the White Sox offense managed to post single runs in the fourth and seventh, which was adequate for the task tonight.
Munetaka Murakami led off the former inning with a walk, then scored all the way from first on Colson Montgomery's double to the right center gap. Justin Jirschele took a chance on sending Murakami after Lane Thomas took an indirect route to collecting it, and while a good relay would have gotten him by plenty, the throw home was anything but.
The latter rally also started with a walk -- two of them, as Andrew Benintendi and Dustin Harris drew free passes with one out. That spelled the end for Seth Lugo, and although John Schreiber got Quero to hit a bouncer to Vinnie Pasquantino, an attempt to force out Harris at second forced Witt to jump off the bag, and an initial safe call was overturned. That loaded the bases for Acuña, who delivered a no-doubt sac fly to right to double the margin.
"We moved the ball forward," said Will Venable. "We drew five walks, not a ton of strikeouts. We knew Lugo was going to be around the zone, so a nice job kind of taking what he gave us. But we’ve still got to go offensively and find different ways to score. Thought it was a really nice job by Acuña against a really tough righty to get the ball in the air."
The White Sox had other opportunities to score, but grounded into three double plays, and it could've been four had Jonathan India not thrown wildly on his turn in the first inning. The Royals grounded into no double plays, but that only meant that they fared worse with runners in scoring position (0-for-7 versus 0-for-4) and runners left on base (11, compared to six).
Notes:
*If the White Sox had to commit a pointless defensive mistake to fulfill a Kauffman Quota, Murakami took care of it in the first inning by dropping Witt's pop-up. Fortunately, García was already on base, so it wasn't an error, but a 3-6 forceout.
*Kay created a problem for himself in the second with a balk that took a harmless flyout off the board while allowing India to advance to second. He overcame it with a popout and a strikeout.
*Taylor had to survive a couple of BABIP incidents with two outs in the seventh. Montgomery got played by a García one-hopper, and then Witt rolled a swinging bunt all the way to third base.
*Ultimately, the Sox infield gave pitchers more than it took. Miguel Vargas ended the fifth inning by smothering a Witt bouncer to his right and getting rid of the ball as quickly as possible. A long one-hop throw beat Witt's foot by a fraction of a step. Meidroth's equally valuable play -- a diving stop to his right on a Pasquantino grounder -- brought that seventh-inning threat to a quiet close.
*The White Sox lost both their challenges on sketchy usages, with Vargas trying to overturn an 0-1 pitch in the first, and Domínguez arguing for a slider that was inches off the plate. Perhaps García's checked swing threw him off.
