The finale of the season-opening three-game set at Kauffman Stadium followed the template set in the first two: One starter outpitches the other, but late-game wobbles with the bullpen made it closer than it had any business being.
Thanks to Lucas Giolito, the White Sox managed to be on the winning end of it this time.
Giolito opened his 2018 season with a four-pitch walk to Whit Merrifield ... then kept all Royals off the bases for the next 6⅓ innings. Alex Gordon ended the no-hit bid on the Danny Wright Line by lining a 2-2 curveball into center field, and the Royals tagged him for two more hits and two runs before he could get the third out of the inning. However, the White Sox had given him a 6-0 lead, so we're allowed to focus on everything that happened before then.
In short, Giolito had everything working. He got 15 swinging strikes out of 99 pitches, and on four different pitches. He got six on a fastball that averaged 93.5 mph, and while his curve wasn't as effective as he might've hoped, his slider came in to provide a different look later in the game.
As a result, Kansas City's speed never factored into the equation. I suppose you can also credit Yonder Alonso, whose diving catch on a Billy Hamilton liner in the sixth kept the fastest Royal off the bases.
One can also credit Alonso for helping the Sox get comfortable. He didn't give the Sox their lead of the year -- that was Jose Abreu, with a mammoth 437-foot homer into the fountains -- but Alonso went back-to-back on back-to-back pitches. His first White Sox hit was also his first White Sox homer, and the Sox turned the tables on what had been an effective Jorge Lopez in the fourth for a 2-0 lead.
The Sox tacked on two more runs two innings later without a hit in scoring position. Leury García singled and Yoan Moncada doubled, and Lopez pitched around Abreu to load the bases. Up came Alonso, and Ned Yost countered with sidewinding lefty Tim Hill.
Alonso saw six pitches and shouldn't have swung at any of them, but he laid off four for a run-scoring walk. Eloy Jiménez saw five pitches, all out of the zone, and he drew a walk for another non-hit RBI.
Of course, Daniel Palka bounced into a double play on the first pitch he saw from Hill, and Tim Anderson then grounded out on Kevin McCarthy's first pitch. After those two walks, the Royals only needed two pitches to get three outs.
The Sox were able to chase that aftertaste in the seventh. Just when it looked like James McCann's leadoff double would be stranded at third, Moncada served the first pitch into center for an RBI, and after another Abreu walk, Alonso roped his own single to right for his third RBI of the game.
The insurance was necessary, first because Giolito couldn't finish the seventh after losing the no-hitter and shutout bids in successive order. Ryan Burr finished that inning.
Maybe Burr should've started the eighth, because Kelvin Herrera didn't look great. He gave up a series of well-hit balls, a couple of which could've been converted into outs. Martin Maldonado led off with a double inside the third-base line. After Hamilton lined out to center, Merrifield hit his own smash toward third. Moncada gloved it, but he double-clutched while lining up his body toward first, and his throw pulled Abreu off the bag for a "single." One batter later, Adalberto Mondesi's smash up the middle ramped off Tim Anderson into center field. The Royals cut the lead to 6-3 and brought the tying run to the plate.
Fortunately, Herrera induced a couple flyouts to end the inning, and Alex Colome made easy work of the ninth for his first save in a White Sox uniform.
Bullet points:
*Moncada's no-strikeout dream is over, as he fanned his first two times up against Lopez. He ended up salvaging his afternoon with two singles and two runs scored.
*Abreu, Alonso and Jiménez drew the Sox' five walks from the 3-4-5 spots in the order.
*Palka is the last hitless regular, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
Record: 1-2 | Box score | Highlights
