Royals bullpen loses it in the ninth inning of suspended game with White Sox
The Royals and White Sox in fact finished the first game of their three-game series, and it only took a little shy of 29 hours.
Yolmer Sanchez’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth handed the Royals a 2-1 loss on Tuesday and wrapped up the suspended game that included 3 hours, 4 minutes worth of rain delays at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday afternoon. The teams were poised to begin the day’s regularly scheduled game at 6:40 p.m.
The game resumed with the score tied, 1-1, with a White Sox runner on base and two outs in the fifth inning. The Royals brought in relief pitcher Scott Barlow, their third pitcher of the inning going back to Monday afternoon, and he recorded the final out, a strikeout, of an inning that started roughly 23 hours earlier.
Barlow had given up eight earned runs combined in his last two appearances (three innings) against the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees. He took the loss against the Yankees in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Barlow pitched 2 1/3 innings without allowing a hit, keeping the score tied going into the eighth.
Jake Diekman pitched a scoreless eighth, including an inning-ending double play that kept a run off the board. However, Diekman went to a 3-0 count before he hit the leadoff batter in the ninth, left-handed hitter Yonder Alonso, and exited the game. Kevin McCarthy gave up a double, putting the winning run on third base.
“I wanted to push Diekman one more at-bat because I liked the match-up with Diek against Alonso,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He just couldn’t throw him a strike.”
After an intentional walk to load the bases, McCarthy got a ground ball from Jose Rondon for the first out of the inning. The Royals then brought Whit Merrifield in from right field to be a fifth infielder.
Sanchez lined a single over the infield for the walk-off win.
Brad Keller was scheduled to start the second game, his first appearance against the White Sox since he and White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson were ejected and suspended as part of a bench-clearing altercation in April.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 6:41 PM.
