Phone systems hamper White Sox-Royals game in KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The White Sox and Royals were delayed for nearly 5 minutes in the first inning Thursday when the phone system that allows the managers to call from their dugouts went down.

Royals spokesman Mike Swanson said both teams were affected by the outage, which prevented the managers from contacting their bullpens or replay officials.

Chief umpire Jerry Layne signaled for the game to continue after the delay of 4 minutes, 31 seconds, even though the phones at Kauffman Stadium were still down. White Sox manager Robin Ventura and Royals manager Ned Yost agreed that they would challenge any call based only on what they saw, or if a courier can run quickly enough to their respective dugouts.

The phones were finally restored near the end of the third inning.