This three-game series against the Royals is the easiest one this month for the White Sox, at least on paper. In practice, it's not off to an encouraging start.
The Sox lost just their second game of the season when leading entering the sixth inning. Iván Nova deserves some of the blame, but his mistakes were physical. The thinking that led Rick Renteria to call for Jace Fry to face Billy Hamilton leading off the seventh after the Sox just rallied to tie is the more regrettable error.
Given that Fry has the highest walk rate among White Sox pitchers and one that's bottom-10 in baseball, he was a curious choice for a pitcher who simply needed to throw strikes against Hamilton. Sure enough, Fry walked Hamilton without making him take the bat off his shoulder, which put the inning in motion.
Hamilton himself didn't score the go-ahead run, as he was erased on a "fielder's choice" at second. Yolmer Sánchez was awarded the out because second-base umpire Paul Emmel said he dropped the ball on the exchange after Yoan Moncada made a nice diving stop on Whit Merrifield and threw to second to get the force. Had Ned Yost not senselessly burned a challenge in the top of the seventh -- I'll get to that -- he probably could've gotten it overturned.
But the Royals recovered. Alex Gordon bunted Merrifield to second, and then Fry -- still in -- pitched to Adalberto Mondesi, who came through with his third hit of the game to score Gordon for a 5-4 lead.
Juan Minaya came in to face Jorge Soler, but Soler lined a double to left with Mondesi in motion, and an insurance run scored without a throw home. Here's where I'll note that Aaron Bummer had been warming, but he wasn't used at any point.
The White Sox had tied the game with a similar rally off the Kansas City bullpen in the top of the inning. With the Sox trailing 4-2, Tim Anderson finally chased Homer Bailey with a leadoff double, then moved to third when Sánchez's single to center dropped in. Ryan Cordell popped out, and Leury García fell into a battle with Brad Boxberger before hitting a bouncer to second.
First-base umpire Bruce Dreckman said the Royals successfully turned the 4-6-3 double play, but it looked like García beat it out in real time, so Rick Renteria challenged. Sensing an overturned call, Yost wanted the umpires to look at Sánchez's slide into second, which was directed at Mondesi's legs, but in front of the bag, and with second base in easy reach.
Sure enough, the call was overturned, the run scored to make it a 4-3 game, and Yoan Moncada followed with a jam-shot double that fell just inside the left-field line and spun toward the wall, allowing García to score from first even with Alex Gordon's arm in left.
They also mounted threats in the eighth and ninth innings, but they couldn't capitalize on either Jake Diekman or Ian Kennedy, sealing the Sox' third straight loss. The Sox are now 23-2 when leading after five, which is still astounding, but this is the kind of regression I was talking about.
Nova deserved better, either from his line or from his lineup. He just happened to hit a wall in the sixth inning, starting with three consecutive hits -- Merrifield singled, Gordon beat the shift, Mondesi doubled -- to lose his one-run lead. Nova came back to strike out Soler, but he lost a battle with Ryan O'Hearn, walking him to load the bases. In came Evan Marshall, but he allowed a two-run single to Cheslor Cuthbert to give the Royals their first lead of the night.
But Nova should've gotten more than two runs of support at that time. Homer Bailey wasn't all that impressive, but he got away with most of his mistakes. The Sox only struck once against him, with James McCann lining a double to the left-center gap to score Garciá and Jose Abreu with two outs in the top of the third for a 2-0 lead.
Nova gave up his own two-out hit, a single to Merrifield, to allow Kansas City to halve the lead before the third was over.
Bullet points:
*Nova's ERA rose from 6.24 to 6.28 even though he struck out a season-high six.
*Kelvin Herrera worked a scoreless eighth, which counts as news these days.
*The White Sox were 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position, while the Royals were 4-for-13. That fairly represents the difference.
*Sánchez got away with dropping the throw at second, but he made up for it with a sliding stab on a tricky one-hopper in the eighth.
Record: 29-33 | Box score | Highlights
