Royals rookie Kris Bubic turns in his best start yet but takes loss against White Sox
Kansas City Royals left-hander Kris Bubic made one significant mistake early and then couldn’t make up for another made by the defense behind him as he turned in his best start to date against a deep Chicago White Sox lineup.
Bubic and the Royals fell 5-3 in the third game of their four-game series at Kauffman Stadium Saturday night, a bitter loss in which the final three runs scored by the White Sox were unearned.
The Royals (14-26) have now lost five in a row. They’ll try to avoid being swept by the White Sox (25-15) on Sunday afternoon.
Royals outfielder Bubba Starling hit his first home run of the season, while third baseman Maikel Franco went 2 for 4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored, but he also committed a critical error in the field.
Bubic (0-5) became the first Royals pitcher to get through seven complete innings in a start this season, a career high for the rookie. He allowed just two earned runs and four hits. He also threw 106 pitches for his second straight start.
“I’m not sure of the percentage tonight, but I felt like I was ahead in the count, pitching on the attack more often than having to be 2-1, 3-1 or 2-0 to more guys like I have in past outings,” Bubic said. “Overall, just attacking. Those quick innings helped. The fourth inning was a pretty quick inning. That definitely helps even out the pitch count a little bit.”
Unfortunately for Bubic, his defense made a very costly miscue which tacked on three more runs and ended up being the difference in the game.
After having given up a first-inning two-run home run to White Sox run-producing machine Jose Abreu, Bubic appeared to have righted the ship.
Starling’s first homer of the season — a solo smash down the left field line — pulled the Royals within a run 2-1 in the third inning.
However, Bubic sailed into choppy waters in the fifth inning. A two-base fielding error by Franco at third base on a line drive hit at him by the first batter of the inning, James McCann, forced Bubic to pitch around traffic.
After getting a shallow fly ball and a ground ball to put him position to escaping the inning unscathed, Bubic gave up an infield RBI single to Tim Anderson. Anderson took an emergency hack on a 1-2 pitch and hit a slow roller down the third-base line with Franco playing back. Franco tried to make a bare-handed play, but had no chance throwing out the speedy Anderson.
“Sometimes you just can’t get the lucky bounce,” Bubic said. “We wanted to go off the plate with that, especially since he had just chased the one before 1-1. I don’t know how far that was off. I don’t know how far it was off. Probably a good 4 or 5, maybe 6 inches. He chases it and then swinging bunt, was hoping it was going to roll foul. Nothing you can do there. That’s the pitch we wanted to make in that situation.”
That allowed the runner, who shouldn’t have been on base, to score in an inning that rightfully should’ve been over.
“I should have done a better job with the first one,” Franco said. “The second one, is a really tough one. I tried to get an out at first. It didn’t happen. But at the end of the day, the last one was really tough and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
With Anderson on base, Yasmani Grandal smoked a 3-2, down-an-in fastball high over the left-field wall for a two-run homer.
“(Bubic) did exactly what he needed to do,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “We get to two outs and get Anderson to two strikes and starts making tough pitches. You have a guy who hits a four-hopper right down the line with plus speed in a base runner. You can’t make a play coming in from third base even at the plate even though McCann running there. He did everything he needed to do.”
The White Sox scored three unearned runs with two outs to turn a 2-1 edge into a 5-1 lead with White Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito making Royals hitters look largely out of sync up until the seventh inning.
Ryan O’Hearn’s single and a Franco RBI double chased Giolito in the seventh, and reliever Ross Detwiler gave up an RBI single to Adalberto Mondesi that pulled the Royals within two runs, 5-3.
Giolito struck out nine, but also gave up three runs on five hits and didn’t record an out in the seventh.
The inning included a minor controversy when Mondesi stole second base and the umpire ruled second baseman Nick Madrigal had pushed him off the bag, but upon review Mondesi was called out for not maintaining contact with the bag while the tag was being applied.
Neither team scored in the final two innings.
“Take that fifth away or take a play that didn’t get made in the fifth away and that’s a completely different looking ballgame,” Matheny said. “He gets through that first and he shows really no chink in his armor after that. He just got better as he went. His change-up improved. His fastball continued to get some swings where they weren’t on him.
“Almost every time we’ve been able to stretch him, it seems like his stuff does look better late. He did a great job of helping the bullpen and also giving us a chance to make something happen to put a push there. I think that was as good as we can ask for Kris Bubic to be against that lineup.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 9:52 PM.
