Someone woke up the bats: White Sox 11, Royals 6
Here we are again, playing the Royals for the 400th time in 2020. Supposedly this is the start of the final White Sox-Royals series of the season, but 2020 is a wild time so who really knows.
Big hits and making Danny Duffy work served the White Sox well, as it allowed them to take an early lead and hold on to it. Dylan Cease, despite some spotty control, had a decent outing and went through five, although he failed to give the bullpen much of a break.
The Royals relievers got up and down a few times because Bullpen Genius Mike Matheny couldn't decide what he wanted to do — did he want to burn the bullpen, or did he want to let Duffy wear it? Ultimately Duffy lasted six, but that's only because Yasmani Grandal was thrown out at home to end the second, as José Abreu's double cleared the bases.
But that didn't mean the White Sox didn't punish the K.C. pen. Abreu brought us an RBI single in the seventh with no outs, Yoán Moncada blessed us with a sacrifice fly RBI, and a three-run home run to the moon from Luis Robert brought an end to Jake Newberry's outing.
Matt Harvey sought to redeem himself from his painful start on Tuesday and managed to save the Royals from giving up more runs.
Steve Cishek came in to close the game, up 11-6. He managed to load the bases and almost give up a run before the final out of the game.
Briefly, a rough start
A misplaced pitch in the first gave us a solo home run by Hunter Dozier, kicking off the Royals scoring. The Sox failure to do anything in the top of the first foreshadowed shades of the past series against the Twins.
Parrot Power
Edwin Encarnación hit a bomb to St. Louis in the second to tie things up, 1-1. No bat flip, though.
The White Sox's social media manager used the occasion to make some jokes about a local ad ear worm of 2020:
Encarnación homer kicked off the offense for the Sox. Later in the second, Duffy walked in Tim Anderson to give the Sox a fast lead. Danny Mendick scampered home on a wild pitch, Yasmani Grandal walked to bring in another run, and the inning ended when an RBI doulbe by Abreu ended with Grandal getting thrown out at the plate. All in all, the Sox scored five runs in one inning.
Moncada's woes
Yoán has been open about his struggles this season following his COVID diagnosis. He's been feeling weak and is having a hard time recovering from minor injuries and pains. Unfortunately, the breakneck speed of the season doesn't allow a lot of time off, and to his credit Moncada has not opted out.
Royals mount a (brief) comeback
The bottom of the sixth was the end of Cease's outing against the Royals. After a double by Alex Gordon drove in Maikel Franco and brought the score 6-2, still with no outs, Matt Foster came in to relieve, but was touched for a two-run double by Nicky Lopez that brought the Royals within two runs, cutting through a comfortable lead. Foster was able to work himself out of the inning, though.
Major league debut
Today was the debut of Bernardo Flores Jr. He had a respectable outing. Flores pitched the eighth, throwing 13 pitches (10 strikes) and getting his first major league strikeout to end his outing.
Random game thoughts
- In the stands, Sluggerr (the Royals mascot) was beating up on Pikachu before the bottom of the fourth, for some reason.
Tim homered and did not bat flip. It's still early in the series, though, and maybe he's saving them all up for when he faces Keller on Sunday.
Challenging a hit by pitch seems like a waste of replay.
Are the umpires following the White Sox bus around in some sort of caravan on this road trip?
Two games involving the "was that a catch" replay review makes this feel like football.
Good night, y'all! Late games are a lot better when you're not on the losing end.
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Video courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.