The Chicago White Sox have been run out of Kauffman Stadium by the Kansas City Royals, 6-2, as a masterclass by Davis Martin was erased by a late-inning bullpen collapse. The bats produced two lone runs yet again today, as the offense went dead for the series — five runs in the last three games. The White Sox fall to 44-80, picking up their 80th loss of the season in mid-August, which is not the best pace. Meanwhile, the Royals climbed up another game over .500, as they are now 63-61 thanks to the South
Siders.
Chicago had a promising start against Ryan Bergert — or, should I say, not the team but just Lenyn Sosa. He clubbed a solo shot in the top of the first inning, his team-leading 16th home run of the season.
The team ALMOST added another run in the top of the second, as Edgar Quero singled and Chase Meidroth had a two-out double, but Quero was nabbed at home for the out to end the inning, instead of scoring. It’s obviously more of a lowlight than a highlight, but we’ll show it anyways.
From there it was a quiet few innings for both teams, as Davis Martin cruised through the Royals lineup for five hitless. No-hitter watch early on?
The Royals helped the South Siders out for another run, as Andrew Benintendi reached second on a fielding error by Adam Frazier in left field. Edgar Quero made the mistake count, as he had an RBI single to drive in the run and extend the lead to 2-0. Yes, the White Sox actually capitalized off of another team’s mistake.
Remember that no-hit bid? Yeah, well, it was short-lived. Mike Yastrzemski ended Martin’s mission with a one-out double in the bottom of the sixth, but that would be all for the inning. The White Sox threatened with more of a great opportunity in the seventh inning, as the team had two-on, two-out, but a Benintendi pop-out ended the inning. The downhill slope became even more slippery in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Martin was replaced — and so was the lead. Martin went six innings with one hit, three walks and four strikeouts, moving his ERA into the 3s at 3.94.
Steven Wilson started the seventh inning strong, but a two-out double by Frazier was deemed costly, as Jonathan India immediately clubbed a two-run home run to tie the game up, his eighth of the season.
The White Sox had a big chance to take the lead in the top of the eighth inning, but a baserunning blunder by Meidroth turned out costly. With two outs, Meidroth walked, and Brooks Baldwin came up swinging with a double to left field. Usually with two outs and a faster runner on base, that run would score, but it looks as if Meidroth didn’t realize there were two outs, and stopped for a bit between first and second to make sure the ball was dropping. Instead of a 3-2 lead, there were runners on second and third with two outs, and Mike Tauchman struck out to end the inning.
The Royals immediately capitalized off of the Sox mistakes this time, as Grant Taylor had an eighth inning meltdown. Bobby Witt Jr. singled and stole second, and with two outs the Royals unraveled the runs. Maikel Garcia had the go-ahead run on a single. 3-2. Then, known Sox-killer Salvador Pérez singled on a ball that was almost crushed out of the stadium, but bounced off of the center field wall for a single instead, scoring Garcia. At 4-2, Jordan Leasure took over on the mound, which is almost never good. That wasn’t any different today, as Frazier hit a two-run home run to score Perez. The Royals pushed to a 6-2 lead, all with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
The White Sox went down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth inning, and that would do it. The team’s bad luck in Kansas City continues, as they lose their 14th consecutive game at Kauffman Stadium. It gives me flashbacks to the early 2010’s teams that I would watch when I was 12, where they just could not pick up a win in that stadium. Guess history repeats itself!
The good news is the team will leave Kansas City and not be back until 2026, where they can try and snap that streak. Instead they travel to Atlanta to play the Braves in a three-game series starting tomorrow night. It will be a 6:15 p.m. CT start time for Yoendrys Gómez and Spencer Strider.
Davis Martin was the MVP today, as Brooks Baldwin was his only competition. Sorry, Brooks.
And sorry, the attempted poll for Cold Cats did not work, so we’re going to go with Steven Wilson.
