Jeanmar Gomez doesn't seem like a great candidate to pitch the 10th inning of a close game for a few reasons. One is the 5.00 ERA. The other is the abundance of young arms with more exciting stuff, including Ryan Burr, who has only pitched four times since getting called up on Aug. 22.
But Gomez had struck out eight of the 13 batters he faced in September, which I suppose buys him an opportunity here or there.
And the flip he made to third basically gave it all away.
After retiring the two batters he faced to end the ninth inning, Gomez didn't retire either of the batters he faced in the 10th. He gave up a leadoff double to Brian Goodwin. Alcides Escobar followed with a punched bunt to the left side. Gomez sprung off the mound and gloved it with enough time to get Goodwin at third, but either he couldn't get in a comfortable throwing position or couldn't find the handle.
Or maybe both. Whatever the case, it resulted in an awkward and soft flip well over the head of Yolmer Sanchez, and Goodwin scored to seal the Sox' sixth consecutive loss.
While Gomez's blooper ended it, this was another unsatisfactory game for offense. It rose to life against Jake Junis with a pair of homers in the third -- an Adam Engel solo shot to center and a Daniel Palka laser inside the right-field foul pole -- to take a 3-2 lead.
Then it lay dormant the rest of the game. Junis threw eight innings and retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced. The lone exception was a one-out Yoan Moncada single in the fifth, and he was erased on a double play.
Outside of the third-inning homers, the Sox only had six singles, including three soft ones by Jose Abreu, who'd come off the disabled list. They didn't materialize into anything as the Sox were just 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.
Lucas Giolito rebounded from his disaster against Detroit with seven decent innings, although they were a little reminiscent of his first-half form. He gave up a homer to Whit Merrifield to start his night, and Welington Castillo cut down a runner at second to spare him further first-inning problems.
Giolito helped the Royals scratch across another run in the second, as a wild pitch helped Jorge Bonifacio circle the bases with a pair of singles, giving the Royals a 2-0 lead.
He spent a lot of the game behind in the count, but only paid for it when Ryan O'Hearn clubbed a high 2-0 fastball over the wall in center to tie the game at 3.
Giolito's final line -- 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR -- is an adequate result, but he might want to find a different recipe. He threw just 62 of 106 pitches for strikes, and only got seven swings and misses, more than half of which were on his slider.
Bullet points:
*Castillo cut down a pair of runners tonight. He ended the eighth by cutting down Alex Gordon on a pitch in the dirt that didn't get that far away.
*But Castillo was also foiled by his counterpart in the second. He doubled off the center field wall with one out in the second, then tried to take third when the throw in got away from all infielders and trickled into foul territory between third and home. Running wasn't a bad idea, but Perez got to the ball and, unlike Gomez, made an off-balance-but-on-target throw to get Castillo at third.
*Palka is now tied for the team lead in homers with 22 and for the franchise lead in rookie homers by a lefty.
Record: 56-88 | Box score
