Once again, Kansas City Royals offense battles back but bullpen falters late
After having been handcuffed for five innings by White Sox starter Dylan Cease and falling behind by three runs, the Kansas City Royals’ offense came to life and clawed its way back into a tie in the seventh inning.
Unfortunately the Royals bullpen gave up all the ground they’d reclaimed. They couldn’t recover from that late lapse as they lost 7-3 to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday afternoon in the second game of a three-game series in front of an announced 12,363 at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The game, originally scheduled for Wednesday night, was moved up because of weather concerns. The temperature at first pitch was 39 degrees with 15 mph winds.
“We did a good job of kind of making adjustments as the game went on,” Royals infielder/outfielder Whit Merrifield said. “After we saw him a couple times, we did a better job of getting pitches in the zone and doing something with them, getting on base and executing when we got on base. We did enough to come back and tie it. Unfortunately, today didn’t go our way.”
The Royals were no-hit through the first five innings by Cease, but they bounced back to score two in the sixth and then the tying run in the top of the seventh.
With the score tied in the seventh, rookie reliever Collin Snider gave up a pair of two-out singles, and Royals manager Mike Matheny turned to his bullpen stalwart Scott Barlow to try to close out the inning.
Instead, Barlow gave up a three-run home run to Andrew Vaughn on a first-pitch fastball.
“(I wanted to go) down and away, I just missed up middle and I think he was ambushing that first one and got a good piece of it,” Barlow said.
Vaughn stuck in the side of the Royals pitching staff like a thorn all day. He went 2 for 4 with a double, a home run and four RBIs.
Looking back on it, Barlow said he might have done better to go with a slider in that situation, but his inclination was to pound the strike zone with runners on base.
“First-pitch strike, that’s always kind of been my mindset,” Barlow said. “I feel really good with either pitch in that situation. Hindsight is 20/20. Obviously, when you give up a homer it’s like, ‘I wish I threw a different pitch.’ But location could’ve been better. Looking at it now, in the short time, I think pitch selection would’ve been my go-to for that.”
The White Sox tacked on another insurance run in the eighth inning against reliever Jake Brentz.
Merrifield went 1 for 3 with two RBIs, and Andrew Benintendi (1 for 4) also drove in a run. Bobby Witt Jr. extended his hitting streak to six games, stole a base and scored a run. Edward Olivares also had a hit and a run scored, while Carlos Santana walked twice.
Quality start for Greinke
Royals veteran pitcher Zack Greinke recorded his first quality start of the season. He allowed three runs and five hits, including a home run, in six innings. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.
The White Sox started the scoring in the second inning after a leadoff single by Yasmani Grandal and a double from Jake Burger. With runners on second and third and no outs, Reese McGuire lofted a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in Grandal.
Greinke retired the next two batters to strand a runner on third and limit the White Sox to one run.
The White Sox tacked on, but Greinke made them do so one run at a time.
Greinke gave up a single to Tim Anderson to start the third, and Vaughn followed with an RBI double that one-hopped off the left-field wall to score Anderson.
Greinke said he was pretty happy with the sharpness of his pitches, but pointed to the slider Anderson hit and the low curveball Vaughn hit as two he’d like back.
“His swing was a little weird on it, but it was a down-and-in breaking ball,” Greinke said of the pitch to Vaughn. “That’s not at all where I wanted to go. The swing was a little awkward, and it might have been a ball. But both of them weren’t anywhere close to where I wanted to throw them.”
In the third, Burger started the inning with a 403-foot smash to center field for a solo homer.
Matheny called Greinke’s outing “maybe his best yet.”
“He did such a good job there in the second and third, limiting the damage,” Matheny said. “Both innings he had two guys on and nobody out. He figures out a way just to get one across and keep us in the game. Locating well despite the elements. I thought it was just a terrific job of pitching.”
Getting the offense started
Cease had a dominant performance on a day that offense seemed hard to muster. The right-hander was perfect through four innings with five strikeouts.
“He’s got good numbers for a reason,” Merrifield said. “He’s got good stuff. Today’s atmosphere was something, so it made it a little more difficult.”
The Royals didn’t put a man on base until Santana’s fifth-inning one-out walk. Their first hit came on an Olivares infield single to start the sixth.
That small opening turned into a spark for the Royals. Nicky Lopez drew a one-out walk, and Merrifield hit an RBI single up the right field line to make the score 3-1.
Benintendi followed with an RBI single on a fly ball that dropped in front of White Sox left fielder Vaughn, who made a sliding attempt at a catch.
However, Cease held the Royals to just two runs. He struck out Salvador Perez with two men on base. After falling behind in the count to Santana, Cease intentionally walked Santana and then struck out Hunter Dozier on a 3-2 slider with the bases loaded.
“He completely had us put down, then we figured out a way to kind of scratch back,” Matheny said. “Once again, taking bases when they give them to us and getting the big hit, putting them in where they weren’t. We had some hard-hit balls that got caught too.
“Overall, I thought the guys were taking better at-bats. He had good stuff today. He’s got swing-and-miss stuff. Always has. When he executes, it’s tough to put in play.”
The Royals knotted up the score, 3-3, in the seventh inning against the White Sox bullpen.
Witt manufactured a scoring opportunity with a single and a stolen base. White Sox pitcher Jose Ruiz then committed a balk that moved Witt to third base. After Olivares flew out, Michael A. Taylor walked.
Then Lopez, who’d squared multiple times as if to bunt, got hit by a pitch to load the bases. Merrifield swatted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Witt.
Of course, tie didn’t last long.
The teams conclude their series and the Royals wrap up their road trip on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.
Right-hander Brad Keller (0-2, 2.55) will start for the Royals, while the White Sox list right-hander Michael Kopech (0-0, 0.64) as their probable starter.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 4:02 PM.
