Bullpen makes a mess, but there were some positives in Royals’ loss to White Sox

Royals relievers Jason Adam and Jason Hammel gave up a home run each in the eighth inning of Thursday’s series finale at Guaranteed Rate Field, preventing the Royals from a series sweep as they lost 6-4.

Yet there were positive signs, including the continued defensive magic provided by newcomer Brett Phillips in the outfield, to be parsed out of this defeat.

• Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield entered as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning and clubbed his sixth homer of the season to left-center field, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead and taking rookie starting pitcher Brad Keller off the hook for a loss. Three runs scored on the pinch-hit blast, which was the first pinch-hit homer the Royals had hit since Erik Kratz’s on Aug. 18, 2014, in Minnesota.

• Keller limited damage against him to just two runs despite issuing three walks for a second consecutive start. He struck out a career-high nine batters in 6 1/3 innings.

• And Adalberto Mondesi wheeled his way around the bases, stealing second after sprinting at a rate of 31 feet per second to reach base on a bunt single, according to MLB’s Statcast system.

One day before heading to Minnesota for a three-game series against the Twins, the Royals dropped to 34-74. Rookie pitcher Heath Fillmyer will start Friday’s game opposite fellow right-hander Jake Odorizzi at 7:10 p.m.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 4:09 PM.