White Sox drop Duffy again, Royals can’t sustain momentum in 6-0 loss

Danny Duffy handed the baseball to his manager and began the lonely walk back to the dugout, 40 paces or so on a cool Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium.

For five-plus innings in a 6-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, he had labored and battled. He struggled to finish off hitters. His command lacked its finest polish. His slider left him for innings on end.

The final result was a night of blunted momentum, another loss after a cathartic victory on Monday, a missed opportunity with Duffy, the Royals’ left-handed ace, on the mound.

“I just wasn’t putting people away,” Duffy said. “I got seemingly everybody with two strikes on them, ahead in the count, and I just wasn’t putting people away.”

One night after burying a nine-game losing streak, the Royals’ most visible flaws surfaced again against a division rival. The offense was inert against White Sox starter Jose Quintana, finishing with just four hits and few scoring chances. The lack of production was coupled with a second straight off evening from Duffy, who could not survive more than five innings for a second consecutive start.

The Chicago offense hounded him, piling up 10 hits while scoring six runs. The White Sox hitters would fall behind in the count, then not give in. The combination evened the series at one game apiece with two more to play.

“They just weren’t offering at good pitches,” Duffy said.

The performance should not spark panic — at least as far as Duffy is concerned. After a dazzling start to his season, he has scuffled in two straight starts against the White Sox, allowing six earned runs in both outings. He will likely rebound.

Yet at the macro level, the performance does raise another question. To escape a deep hole after a 7-16 April, the Royals (8-17) must fire on all cylinders for the foreseeable future. On Tuesday, with one of their top guns on the mound, they most definitely were not.

“It’s a shame it had to go the way it did,” Duffy said. “I just got to be better. I let my team down today. The last few times I’ve gone out there, I’ve cost my team a chance to win. So I take all the responsibility for the last two (starts).”

Duffy was making his first start since an eventful night in Chicago last week. A contentious balk call by umpire Bruce Dreckman had derailed his outing in the second inning. Duffy seethed as the call limited his slide-step — an important weapon — for the rest of the game.

By the end, Duffy had allowed six earned runs in 4  2/3 innings, his ERA spiking to 2.81. He spent most of his postgame media session critiquing Dreckman’s call, calling the balk “garbage.”

“It’s not sour grapes,” Duffy said. “I still need to locate (my pitches). I still need to make pitches. But it was a terrible call.”

Five days later, Duffy toed the rubber against the same White Sox lineup. There was little controversy, just a left-hander struggling to put away hitters in the early innings. Five of the White Sox’s first seven batters reached base. Duffy allowed eight hits, nine base runners and four runs across the first three innings.

“He just labored,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He labored with his offspeed stuff and spotting his fastball.”

On the other side, the Royals had little response against Quintana, who posted eight scoreless innings. Resting left-handed hitters Mike Moustakas, Alex Gordon and Brandon Moss against the southpaw Quintana, the Kansas City offense reverted to its April norms. They finished with four hits. No player had more than one. After a hitless night in four at-bats, center fielder Lorenzo Cain is now two for his last 27. Yet he was not the only Royal to struggle against Quintana.

“His ball’s always been a little sneaky,” Whit Merrifield said of Quintana. “Tonight he did a good job pitching up in the zone. It looks good coming in and you just can’t quite get the barrel to it.”

In some ways, this was never close. Duffy escaped the first inning unscathed after allowing two singles, striking out Melky Cabrera on a borderline 3-2 slider and inducing a double play from Jose Abreu.

But the trouble continued in the second. For three straight batters, Duffy worked ahead in a two-strike count, only to give up hits to Todd Frazier, Avisail Garcia and Geovany Soto. The White Sox took advantage for two runs before striking again in the top of the third.

Chicago tacked on two more runs in the sixth against Duffy and reliever Chris Young, pouncing on a defensive miscommunication between second baseman Christian Colon and catcher Drew Butera.

With runners at the corners and one out, Chicago’s Leury Garcia hit a sharp grounder at Colon, who was playing in. Even with a fast runner hustling out of the box, Colon might have had time to flip to shortstop Alcides Escobar at second and execute an inning-ending double play. Instead, he threw home to try and cut down the lead runner. Seconds later, catcher Drew Butera got caught up the line, looking to back up a possible throw to first. Everybody ended up safe.

“Drew thought he was going to try to turn two,” Yost said. “Drew being Drew — who’s always hustling his (rear) off — went to back up first base and realized that CC was coming home. It was CC’s decision. You know, it was a good decision, because if we cut the run down at the plate, we get the fly ball and then the strategy works. We hold it at four.”

In the end, the play did not matter. Not after Duffy struggled. Not after the offense endured its third shutout of the season and 13th game with two runs or fewer. But as he stood in a quiet clubhouse late Tuesday, Duffy sought to take responsibility.

“It sucks,” Duffy said. “It sucks right now. But it’s a product of our own doing, and tonight was on me. Nobody is feeling bad for us but ourselves, and it’s up to us to come out of this.”

White Sox 6, Royals 0

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 at 10:05 PM with the headline "White Sox drop Duffy again, Royals can’t sustain momentum in 6-0 loss."