Royals 6, White Sox 3: Losing streak extends to seven games

A two-out rally in the final frame by the White Sox made things a bit tense for the Royals. With a five-run lead, the Royals bullpen had a tough time closing out the game as Tim Anderson drove in his 60th run of 2018, and Yoan Moncada drew a bases-loaded walk for an easy RBI. Yolmer Sanchez had a chance to continue the rally but flew out to shallow left field, and thus the losing streak extends to seven games in-a-row with a 6-3 defeat.

Before the ninth inning, this was more of the same lousy brand of baseball we’ve seen from the White Sox in 2018. Before Ryan LaMarre singled in the ninth to start the rally, the White Sox last base hit was Avisail Garcia’s infield single in the third inning. Even that hit was in large thanks to Royals shortstop Adalberto Mondesi taking his sweet time with the grounder and underestimating Garcia’s ability to move down the first base line quickly. That play gave the White Sox an early 1-0 lead.

Of course, that lead wouldn’t hold as Dylan Covey, again, had troubles facing the Royals lineup a second time through the order. Three runs in the third, one run in the fourth, and two more runs in the fifth gave Covey an ugly line of 4.1 IP 6 H 6 R 5 ER 3 BB 4 K. The last two runs scored off Ryan Burr pitching as the Royals pulled off the double steal to move Whit Merrifield and Alex Gordon into scoring position. Both would score on Hunter Dozier’s single. Kansas City was 4-for-5 in stolen base attempts with Merrifield stealing two bags.

Offensively the White Sox were in a good position in the second inning to do some damage. Daniel Palka and Nicky Delmonico had back-to-back singles starting the inning on the right foot. Welington Castillo hit a sharp grounder down the third base line which Dozier’s only play was to first base. With one out, and runners on second and third, a prime opportunity for Anderson to give the Sox an early lead. Instead, Anderson grounded out to Dozier on the first pitch he saw, and Engel followed suit with a groundout to Dozier ending the threat.

Tonight also displayed more bad defense against the bunt. Down 2-1, and with runners on the corners, Mondesi laid down a bunt in front of home plate. Castillo’s only play was to first base as Rosell Herrera scored from third, but his throw to first was way off the mark and rolled into right field. Merrifield was on first and advanced all the way to third base on the error. He would come around to score on Alex Gordon’s deep fly out to right field which Palka made a nice leaping catch.

After finishing August with a 17-12 record, the White Sox are now 2-8 in September.

Record: 56-89 | Box Score

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ParisSox

I have an idea (stolen from the random box score idea) – to recap each loss from here on out., just put the score and then write a recap from an exciting win from that same date from another year.