When the White Sox rearranged their rotation to throw Dylan Cease at the Cleveland Guardians, it allowed Michael Kopech to take the mound with two extra days of rest.
Kopech didn't just look recharged -- he looked supercharged. He threw eight nearly perfect innings as the White Sox faced the minimum for the first time since Philip Humber's perfect game in 2012 to take the opener of the weekend series against the Royals.
Only a broken-bat single from -- who else -- Classy Michael Massey prevented Kopech from perfection, as it barely cleared the mitt of a leaping Andrew Vaughn into the shallowest of right field with one out in the sixth inning. Kopech went to the stretch for the first time all evening and immediately erased Massey with a double-play ball from Jackie Bradley Jr., and the Sox cruised the rest of the way.
Kopech struck out 10 without allowing a walk over eight one-hit innings. Along with it being the longest start of his career, he also became the third pitcher in White Sox history to boast that particular line.
He did all the heavy lifting with his fastball, throwing it for 70 percent of his 98 pitches, and getting 75 percent of his 20 whiffs. It seldom strayed from the top half of the zone or higher, and he commanded it on both sides of the plate when he needed to put a finer point on it. The slider gave him something else when he needed it, but the Royals were often laughably late on the fastball, so anything else would've been doing them a favor.
When they did make contact, it wasn't good. Kopech allowed just one hard-hit ball, and it barely qualified as such at 95.3 mph. Kendall Graveman, who retired the side in the ninth on two grounders and a flyout to the warning track in center for his third save of the year, allowed higher exit velocities than Kopech's max on all three batted balls.
The effort on the mound helped make an unimpressive offensive output hold up. The Sox stung Zack Greinke for two runs on four consecutive hits and a sac fly in the second inning, then mustered only one other hit the rest of the way.
They nearly ran themselves out of the second, too. Yoán Moncada, Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets all singled, with Moncada scoring from second on Sheets' base hit. Jake Burger then singled through the left side, but Eddie Rodriguez wisely posted an early stop sign, which Vaughn heeded.
Sheets did not see the traffic slow in front of him. He instead read the throw sailing over the head of the cutoff man, and continued drifting toward third. But he did not see Greinke backing up the throw between the third baseman and the catcher, and although Sheets tried to scramble back to second, Greinke's on-target throw to the bag beat him there.
On the bright side, the White Sox would've had the bases loaded with nobody out and the bottom of the order coming to the plate, and that didn't go well on Thursday. With runners on the corners and one out, Romy González hit a sac fly to deep center. While it lowered González's on-base percentage below his batting average -- he's now hitting .132/.128/.184 this year -- it gave the Sox a welcome insurance run, and Kopech turned that small cushion into a California king. The Royals only brought the tying run to the plate for one batter the rest of the way.
Bullet points:
*Moncada made a nifty sliding pick to start the ninth, and recovered the bobble in time for an on-target, on-time throw.
*The Royals only needed one reliever, too. Jackson Kowar overcame early control issues to pitch the remaining 2⅓ innings in his 2023 debut.
