Royals, Danny Duffy dug an early hole in a loss to the White Sox
Danny Duffy’s night seemed destined for an early end. The Royals left-hander got bogged down in the second inning and nearly forced manager Mike Matheny’s hand.
But Duffy powered his way through six innings to take some of the night’s burden off the Kansas City bullpen.
The Royals pulled within two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but the Chicago White Sox responded with their second five-run inning of the night. The Royals couldn’t recover as they lost the series opener 11-6 at Kauffman Stadium Thursday.
Hunter Dozier had two hits, including a home run, for the Royals (14-24). Nicky Lopez had two hits, a double and three RBIs. Alex Gordon had an RBI double.
The game featured the Royals debut of Edward Olivares, who came over from the San Diego Padres in the Trevor Rosenthal trade. A 24-year-old outfielder who had appeared in major-league games this season with the Padres, Olivares was called up before Thursday’s game.
Olivares, who started in center field, collected his first hit and scored a run in the Royals’ three-run sixth inning. He went 2 for 4 with a double and two runs scored.
While far from a masterpiece, Duffy’s night was one of resilience: He battled his way through six innings and allowed six runs on seven hits and five walks. He gave up a pair of home runs and he threw 98 pitches.
“I just think fastball command completely left me today,” Duffy said. “I just couldn’t get it glove-side when I wanted to. When I wanted to go arm-side, it just wasn’t there.”
Duffy struggled to hit his spots and that presented a big problem in the second inning as the White Sox took advantage of his miscues to the tune of five runs. By the end of the inning, the Royals had Jake Newberry warming in the bullpen.
“It’s just something where I’ve got to refine my mechanics,” Duffy said. “They were all out of whack today, and the score showed. I’m better than that. That’s a really good team over there, and they hit mistakes. I made quite a few of them today.”
At the start of the second inning, Duffy gave up a solo home run to Edwin Encarnacion on a ball that went an estimated 442 feet to left field. After Yoan Moncada lined out, four consecutive batters reached base on a walk, two singles and a bases-loaded walk that forced in a run.
Another run scored on a wild pitch to give the White Sox a 3-0 advantage. Then, after Duffy’s third walk of the inning, Jose Abreu ripped a two-run double into the left-center-field gap.
The trailing runner of the three men on base, catcher Yasmani Grandal, got thrown out at the plate on a relay from left fielder Gordon to shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to catcher Cam Gallagher. Mondesi’s throw led Gallagher’s glove into a perfect position to apply the tag. Gordon recorded his 101st outfield assist on the play.
“That second inning, you’re right at 40 pitches,” Matheny said. “We don’t make that really nice relay from the outfield and beautiful tag at the plate, I’m not sure he’s going to be in that game any longer. It was just at that point.”
The Royals were thin on bullpen options. They’ve been going with a six-man starting rotation for the past week instead of having an extra bullpen arm available. The day after they traded away closer Rosenthal, they also lost right-hander Ian Kennedy to a calf injury.
Rookie right-hander Carlos Hernandez pitched 3 2/3 innings in relief of Matt Harvey Tuesday night, so Hernandez was not an option Thursday. Kyle Zimmer pitched two innings in relief Wednesday night, and the Royals designated left-handed reliever Randy Rosario for assignment prior to Thursday’s game.
Tim Anderson’s seventh homer of the season came in the fourth to give the White Sox a 6-1 lead. It stayed that way until Maikel Franco’s leadoff hit — on which a Royals replay challenge upped a ruled single to a double — sparked a three-run sixth inning. Gordon’s RBI double scored Franco, and Lopez hit a two-run double.
“He did a nice job of pulling it together, finding a new rhythm and then eating up some time for the guys in the bullpen to not have to go run right through each of them,” Matheny said of Duffy.
The White Sox regained control with the five-run seventh to go ahead 11-4. The Royals chipped away at that lead with two runs in the eighth. They also loaded the bases in the ninth but couldn’t scratch out a run.
Harvey made his sixth major-league relief appearance and first since May 3, 2018. Matheny said Harvey was due to throw a bullpen session Thursday anyway, so the appearance didn’t necessarily take him out of the running to make his next start.
Harvey pitched two-thirds of a scoreless inning after Newberry couldn’t get out of the seventh .
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 10:34 PM.
