White Sox hitters struggled to get all of it for nearly all of this afternoon's rubber match against the Royals. A few fly balls tied on the warning track, and the other couple well-hit balls couldn't get the needed lift. Soft contact and half-swing strikes ruled the rest of the day.
Luis Robert found the barrel when ... well, not when the White Sox needed it most. Any kind of hit would have scored Jarrod Dyson from second with the game tied at 2 in the 10th inning. Nevertheless, after coming up short of a blast by a few feet earlier in the game, Robert's lofty fly ball drifted over the head of Alex Gordon, two rows deep into the left-field seats for a three-run walk-off.
In the process, the White Sox improved to 10-0 against left-handed starters, even if the handedness of the starter hasn't been the distinguishing factor of the past two victories.
For the third time in as many games, Rick Renteria had to try to gut through a close score on more bullpen than he trusted. This time, the short start was by design. Dane Dunning kept Kansas City hitless through five, allowing just a walk while striking out seven. But at 79 pitches, Renteria had already pushed the post-surgery Dunning into an unprecedented area, so he tried to get his bullpen to nurse a 2-0 lead.
Renteria's choices were interesting. He went with Jimmy Cordero for a third straight day and a fourth straight game, but two of the four batters he faced reached safely, including a Cam Gallagher double that came around to score. Renteria used Evan Marshall in high-leverage fashion, striking out Jorge Soler with the tying run on second to end the sixth, and Marshall then handled the seventh by himself.
But that left the eighth, and Renteria gave Steve Cishek a shot.
Cishek had been walled off from high leverage situations due to his early stumbles, but his last seven outings -- one run, four baserunners over six innings -- apparently won him another look. It didn't work, because he gave up a solo shot to Whit Merrifield with two outs in the eighth inning that tied the game.
Alex Colomé fought his way to a scoreless ninth, and Jace Fry and Matt Foster teamed up with Adalberto Mondesi to keep KC off the board in the 10th.
"Isn't Mondesi on the Royals?" you might be asking. Yes, at least technically. It's not as clear when considering the choices he made. In the seventh, he ended the inning by popping up a bunt with two outs after a two-out walk. And after he lined out to end the ninth, he started on second base in the 10th ... and got caught stealing at third by James McCann.
Fry then started his own jam by walking Nicky Lopez on four pitches, but he struck out Meibrys Viloria on three pitches and worked around Merrifield to get through the three-batter minimum. Up came Hunter Dozier, and in came Matt Foster, who struck him out on three fastballs to get the game to the bottom of the inning.
Jarrod Dyson pinch-ran for Yasmani Grandal, but that wasn't needed. The Royals issued an intentional walk to José Abreu to start the double play, but McCann struck out.
Robert did the opposite. Zuber, who seemed preoccupied with Dyson on second throughout the inning, finally came at Robert with a slider. But it split the plate while staying above the knees, and Robert launched it out to left to end the game.
In regulation, the White Sox were limited to single runs in the second and third innings off Kris Bubic.
McCann started the second with a walk, moved to third on Adam Engel's two-out single, then scored on Nick Madrigal's two-out single for the game's first run.
An inning later, Grandal and Abreu strung together one-out singles, and McCann shot a grounder off Maikel Franco and into foul territory in left field to make it a 2-0 game. Robert stalled the rally by popping out, but he made up for it.
Bullet points:
*Madrigal had a Peak Madrigal day, going 3-for-4 with a stolen base. He took second on Greg Holland while Holland was still in a set position on the mound.
*Tim Anderson, Eloy Jiménez and Danny Mendick all wore silver sombreros, combining to go 0-for-14 with nine strikeouts.
*Jiménez did make a sliding catch in foul territory. It was a circular route because he needed to size up the side wall, but a catch is a catch.
*Dunning topped out at 92.4 mph, but he got seven swinging strikes on his breaking ball to make velocity less of a concern.
*The White Sox head into Minnesota with a share of first place in the AL Central and a 1½-game lead on the Twins.
