Andrew Vaughn blooped a single to proper discipline within the third inning Thursday in opposition to the Kansas City Royals.
Seby Zavala, who started the inning with a single and superior to second on a Luis Robert hit, bought a late break on the play and solely made it to 3rd.
Still, the Chicago White Sox had the bases loaded with no outs.
It appeared that the Sox have been heading towards a giant inning. Instead, Royals starter Zack Greinke struck out Eloy Jiménez and José Abreu. Yasmani Grandal labored a full depend earlier than grounding out to shortstop Nicky Lopez, holding the Sox scoreless.
It was that sort of day — and journey — for the Sox.
They wasted one other implausible outing from Dylan Cease with a 5-3 loss to the Royals in entrance of 10,009 at Kauffman Stadium.
“We had (14) hits, had a real good effort,” Sox supervisor Tony La Russa mentioned. “The man on the mound (Greinke) has made an actual good profession at pitching out of that. Cease was excellent however we bought able to play. We created the rallies, we have been rallying late.
“It was the effort of the whole team. It’s tough to accept the loss but we took our shot.”
Cease allowed one run — a homer to Vinnie Pasquantino within the second inning — on three hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in six innings.
“Dylan threw phenomenal,” Vaughn mentioned. “He’s been doing that for 14 straight starts. It stinks not to get him some runs.”
It was Cease’s 14th consecutive begin permitting one or no earned runs, extending a major-league file (excluding openers).
“It was definitely a tough loss,” Cease mentioned. “I thought I pitched pretty well, it was just one of those games. I always have the same mindset. I’m trying to limit as much as I can whether we’re up by eight or down. Really nothing changes.”
The Royals added three runs within the seventh in opposition to the Sox bullpen. Lopez drove in two with a single in opposition to José Ruiz. Those runs have been charged to Joe Kelly, who exited with a lightheadedness after going through the primary three batters of the innings. Lopez scored on an MJ Melendez single.
Grandal’s two-run homer within the eighth introduced the Sox inside 4-2. But the crew left the bases loaded once more in that inning.
The Royals added an insurance coverage run within the eighth. Vaughn hit a solo homer within the ninth earlier than Scott Barlow retired the subsequent three because the Sox dropped three of 4 within the collection.
It was a tough journey for the Sox, who went 3-5 in opposition to sub.-500 groups within the Texas Rangers and Royals. It was their first dropping journey since May 31-June 5, once they went 2-4 in opposition to the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays.
“It’s definitely not ideal but we’re not hanging our heads,” Cease mentioned. “We’ve battled all year so we pretty much just have to keep battling and not get emotionally negative in any way. Just give it everything we’ve got.”
The Sox returned to .500 at 56-56, with the shortcoming to provide runs once more proving pricey.
The first two batters reached within the second, adopted by a flyout and double play. They had the three straight singles within the scoreless third.
La Russa mentioned Zavala made the right baserunning play on Vaughn’s single.
“The ball is caught by the right fielder and he’s halfway not tagging up we’d be upset,” La Russa mentioned. “So he stayed near the bag. All you are able to do, get to 3rd base. I’d relatively him get to 3rd base with one out (if the) man caught the fly ball.
“We still had the bases loaded. If he would have scored Robert would’ve been on third base, but I think he made the right baseunning play.”
The Sox had runners on the corners with one out within the sixth however got here up empty. Even once they scored two within the eighth on Grandal’s homer, they did not tack on, leaving the bases loaded later within the inning.
The Sox went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring place.
“We got (14) hits,” La Russa mentioned. “You don’t get those hits luckily. You create opportunities. You follow Zack Greinke’s career, he pitches out of a lot of jams. And he pitched out (of) bases loaded and two on against the middle of our lineup. That’s tough to take. But tip your cap to him.”
The Sox stranded stranded 11 baserunners whereas falling to 8-8 throughout their stretch of 19 video games in opposition to groups with sub .500 information. That stint concludes with three video games this weekend in opposition to the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“It’s never good to lose a series,” Vaughn mentioned. “We’re barely hanging around .500. (We’ve) got to keep going at it.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com