Royals beat White Sox 6-3, reduce magic number to 1

Win and they’re in.

It’s come down to that for the Royals, whose series opening 6-3 victory over the White Sox on Thursday has reduced the team’s postseason qualifying magic number to the smallest of margins.

One more victory and this squad will become the first since 1985 to appear in playoff game.

OK, a loss would do the trick also, as long as the Seattle Mariners lose, but what fun would that be for the Royals?

“I’m anxious,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “I was really excited today. It’s the most excited I’ve been in a long, long time with the possibility of hopefully doing it tonight.”

That didn’t happen because by the time the Royals came to bat in the first, the Mariners had won their game against the Toronto Blue Jays. That meant no playoff-clinching opportunity on Thursday.

Also, because the Detroit Tigers defeated the Minnesota Twins, the Royals could not close ground in the American League Central Division race. The Tigers maintained their two-game lead.

But the Oakland A’s fell, and that means the Royals are a game ahead of their closest pursuer in the wild-card race. If the season ended Thursday, Kauffman Stadium would be the site of a wild-card game between the teams on Tuesday.

Three games remain in the season, and it might take all of them to resolve playoff pairings and sites, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Royals will be on the playoff bracket.

They put themselves in this position Thursday with some late-inning clutch hitting and a big break.

The night’s most productive hitters, Lorenzo Cain and Eric Hosmer, did their thing to open the eighth, knocking consecutive singles. Hosmer’s got Cain to third.

Up stepped Billy Butler. Out went starting pitcher Jose Quintana. Reliever Jake Petricka got exactly what he wanted, a ready-made ground ball to shortstop. Alexei Ramirez fielded it cleanly and flipped to second baseman Marcus Semien to force Hosmer.

“I was already flushing it,” Yost said. “OK, we’re going to have to get them next inning.”

But Hosmer got to second quickly, perhaps impacting Semien’s throw, which bounced to first baseman Jose Abreu. He couldn’t field it cleanly. Mark it in the book as a fielder’s choice RBI for Butler.

“I was trying to get it up in the air and get in a run,” Butler said. “It got the job done in a different way.”

Speedster Terrance Gore pinch-ran for Butler, stole second and scored on Alex Gordon’s second hit of the night.

From there, the Royals added a run in the ninth and the bullpen did its thing over the final three inning, although there was a bit of static. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis each had to work around a pair of base runners, and closer Greg Holland walked the first batter he faced.

But they closed out a game in which starter James Shields wasn’t at his best. He went six, surrendering three runs and didn’t figure in the decision.

“I couldn’t find a rhythm all game,” Shields said. “I didn’t have my good stuff tonight, but sometimes when you don’t have your good stuff you have to battle.”

The White Sox held a lead from the second inning until the sixth, when Hosmer turned on Quintana’s one-strike offering and drove a laser beam over the right-field wall to make it 3-3.

The home run was the Royals’ first since Sept. 17, when Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar went deep against White Sox ace Chris Sale at Kauffman Stadium, a stretch of 62 innings.

The Royals opened things on a positive note when Cain stroked a two-out double in the first and Hosmer singled him home. Shields had a bit of a cushion.

He lost it in the second. A 10-pitch at bat by Jordan Danks ended in a walk. After powering strike three past Dayan Viciedo, Shields faced Josh Phegley, who’d had one hit eight at bats against the Royals ace.

Phegley made his second one memorable, socking a two run blast into the left-field seats.

The Royals were poised to answer in the fourth when Cain opened the third with a hustle double. But Hosmer struck a lazy fly to center on the first pitch, Butler waved at strike three in the dirt, and Gordon shattered his bat grounding out to second.

The White Sox made the most of their fourth inning leadoff double by Moises Sierra, who entered the game in the third inning when Viciedo, the starting right fielder left the game with back stiffness. Danks followed with an RBI single to right to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead.

The Royals got one back in the fifth but should have more from an inning that yielded a triple and two singles.

Sal Perez opened with a sinking line drive that Sierra appeared to lose in the lights. He found it too late. The ball skipped past him and too the wall. Perez, on his way to a sure double, turned up the speed and recorded his second triple of the season.

The Royals nearly blew the chance. Omar Infante and Mike Moustakas struck out, passing the burden to Alcides Escobar. His line single to right brought home Perez to make it 3-2.

That set the stage for the eighth, when the Royals took the lead for good and gave themselves a chance to uncork bubbly — for the first time since 1985 — with a victory on Friday.

This story was originally published September 25, 2014 at 10:23 PM with the headline "Royals beat White Sox 6-3, reduce magic number to 1."