Kansas City Royals shut out by White Sox as Salvador Perez leaves game with injury
It was hardly the ideal start to a two-game day for the Kansas City Royals’ offense as they came up short again. It didn’t help that their most dangerous slugger left the game with an injury.
The Royals lost 3-0 to the Chicago White Sox in the first game of a doubleheader at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday afternoon. They’ve now been shut out five times this season — four times in the past 16 games.
Royals hitters didn’t have a hit with runners in scoring positions (0 for 12), and they left 12 runners on base.
“That’s the spot we want to be in. We put pressure on. We had guys all over the bases and opportunity to pressure on them and make them make a play,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “Unfortunately, we had three different innings where we got something right there for us, and unfortunately, it just didn’t happen.”
On top of the struggles, the Royals (12-22) were dealt a big blow when their seven-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger award-winning catcher Sal Perez, who went 1 for 3, left the game with a left thumb strain. His status for the second game was not immediately known.
Perez’s departure came at the most inopportune time of the game.
With the Royals trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, they loaded the bases with no outs on a Nicky Lopez (3 for 3) double followed by walks by Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi, with Perez’s spot due up next.
Instead, pinch-hitter Carlos Santana batted for Perez. Santana struck out swinging. Ryan O’Hearn then struck out swinging. Hunter Dozier’s pop-up closed the inning as the Royals came away completely empty handed.
Royals rookie right-hander Jonathan Heasley (0-2) gave up three runs, all in one inning, on four hits and three walks in five innings. He made just his second start of the season in the majors after having been recalled last week in Texas.
Heasley pitched four scoreless and allowed just two hits and two walks through the first four innings. A diving stop at second base by Merrifield to end the third inning prevented a runner from scoring from third as Heasley worked around a leadoff double.
“He was sitting in a really good spot (after the fourth),” Matheny said. “I liked the way he was doing everything. He had a really good tempo. He had everything working. The changeup was really good. He was throwing it behind in counts. Breaking balls were there. Fastballs on both sides.”
In the fifth, Heasley didn’t have the same fortune.
The White Sox (18-17) loaded the bases on a leadoff double by Reese McGuire, Josh Harrison’s walk and a 2-2 pitch that hit Tim Anderson.
“I thought there was a lot of positives,” Heasley said of his outing overall. “Again the free passes. I don’t know if they necessarily hurt me until the fifth. I felt like I made some good pitches throughout to get out of some sticky situations early on. Unfortunately, there in the fifth it just kind of got away from me a little bit.”
AJ Pollock’s sacrifice fly scored McGuire to give the White Sox a 1-0 edge, but a Luis Robert grounder to shortstop put Heasley one out from escaping a bases-loaded situation having given up just one run.
Then White Sox cleanup hitter Jose Abreu hit a 3-2 slider for a two-run double to make the score 3-0. Looking back, Heasley said he’d like to have that pitch back. He wanted to go down and away, but it was left more over the middle.
“I think if I get that to the corner or maybe even out of the zone, he may swing over the top of it or just hit a ground ball,” Heasley said. “The pitch before also was not a great pitch. Luckily he fouled it off. Then I tried to go back and throw a good one. It caught too much of the plate.”
The Abreu double gave the White Sox enough breathing room. The Royals collected seven hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings against White Sox starting pitcher Dylan Cease, but they couldn’t get the timely hit when needed.
“We’ve got to be smart,” Matheny said of the approach to the Abreu at-bat. “We’ve got a couple good hitters there back-to-back and we’ve got open bases — that’s a conversation we even had last night mid-game — make sure we’re smart here and not giving in with anything.
“We talk about that a lot, where we attack the zone. But there’s times and there’s hitters (where you have to be smart). We earmark those and communicate it, but knowing it and having the execution of it sometimes are two different things. Those are tough situations you’ve got to make tough pitches in.”
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 4:27 PM.
