To understand how this game got away from the White Sox, one just had to look at how much it took for the White Sox to establish a two-run lead, no matter how briefly it lasted.
It took Johnny Cueto and all his experience entails, which included a trio of well-turned double plays behind him that helped limit the Royals to one run through five. It took two attempts with the bases loaded and fewer than two outs to get on the scoreboard, and only because Michael Massey got eaten alive by Gavin Sheets' hot two-hopper that should've nevertheless been an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play. It also took a little bit of Mike Matheny dunderheadedness, as he stuck with Kris Bubic batters too long, resulting in Josh Harrison singling home a third run in the sixth with two outs despite having a righty warm in the pen.
Once the White Sox's margin for error disappeared, the entire enterprise went down in flames.
Yoán Moncada was at the center of it. He committed a pair of mistakes in the bottom of the sixth inning. He opened the inning by double-clutching on a Bobby Witt Jr. chopper, and Witt beat it out for an "infield single." Sal Perez doubled him home to make it 3-2, but over the next three pitches, Cueto got Vinnie Pasquantino to fly out to right and Hunter Dozier to hit a grounder to third...
... except Moncada, who made a nifty little pick to his side, then spun and fired wide to first, which put runners on the corners with still only one out. Cueto once again rebounded by striking out Nick Pratto, but he couldn't record a fifth out in time, for Massey redeemed himself with a single left of second base that tied the game at 3.
Jake Diekman then entered in the seventh and hung a slider to MJ Melendez, who gave the Royals a lead with a solo shot to right. A rare off night for Jimmy Lambert put the game away with a four-run eighth, but that fourth run in the seventh was probably enough given the way the White Sox looked. Hell, they went 0-for-2 with their sac-looking flies, one because José Abreu slipped breaking for home even though Melendez forgot the number of outs in left, and another because Yasmani Grandal was on third.
The White Sox are now 8-7 during this 19-game stretch against also-rans, which is perfectly fitting for a team one game over .500 on the whole.
Bullet points:
*The Royals took a 1-0 lead on a Witt RBI single in the second inning that fell a couple steps away from Andrew Vaughn, which always makes one wonder whether somebody else would've caught it.
*Through eight innings, the Royals had eight of the game's 10 hardest-hit balls. Warning-track flies from Luis Robert and Lenyn Sosa in the top of the ninth gave the Sox a couple late entries.
