On Tuesday night, Jordan Leasure was staked to a 4-0 lead, and had two outs and a runner on first when the game's fortunes took one of those insufferable mid-block three-point turns that impedes both lanes of traffic simultaneously.
On Wednesday night, Salvador Perez had already delivered his requisite solo homer on a pitch well out of the zone earlier in the frame, but starter Aaron Civale was an out away from completing five innings of one-run ball, and turning over a tied game to the White Sox offense.
That's uh, not what wound up happening.
Seven batters, five hits, two doubles and two walks later, the Royals were polishing off a fifth-inning eight spot, and effectively celebrating their umpteenth series victory over the Sox in the last three years. Three of Civale's last four starts have included an inning of four runs allowed or more, and this one--from Perez's solo homer, to Kyle Isbel's two-out single, to a four-pitch walk to Mike Yastrzemski, and even Bobby Witt Jr.'s two-run bases loaded single--followed the theme of high misses from a pitcher who has struggled to command the lower half of the zone all year.
"Maybe, I'm not sure," Civale said on whether Royals hitters were hunting for elevated pitches. "[Adam] Frazier at-bat, first four pitches were down in the zone, and then one that I threw up he hit to left field. But thought we did a good job of attacking first four innings. It was working. So there wasn't too much to indicate to adjust off of that."
"We are seeing that trend where it’s really good up front and then kind of can fall apart a little bit like it did today," Will Venable said of Civale. "We’ll keep digging and he’ll continue to look to find ways to get better."
In Civale's defense, he was also a pitch away from from a regular ol' three-spot when Will Venable summoned Tyler Gilbert for a left-on-left matchup with Vinnie Pasquantino. But the Royals first baseman's hard groundball smash eluded Lenyn Sosa's range-limited grasp to plate two inherited runners, and started a season-altering disaster of an outing for Gilbert.
After Yastrzemski--another lefty--lifted a three-run homer out to dead center in the sixth that Michael A. Taylor clearly thought was going to carom off the wall, Gilbert left with six runs on his tab, having retired one of the eight batters he faced. His ERA went from 3.32 on the season to 4.61 in about a half hour's time, and he looked like he was grappling with such a realization as he bounded down the tunnel to the clubhouse after departing.
Royals starter Ryan Bergert wasn't overpowering over six innings of one-run ball; he sat in the low-90s, struck out just three over six innings of one-run ball, and only two of those frames were of the 1-2-3 variety. But he obviously didn't need to be flash more to hold down a lineup absent Luis Robert Jr. and Colson Montgomery.
Andrew Benintendi (three hits) having a sort of get-right performance might have been relevant in other contexts, and it still was in this one, since his sub-100 mph solo shot down the right field line in the fourth removed the possibility of a shutout early. Edgar Quero provided the other multi-hit performance on the night right behind him in the batting order, which combined to create the illusion of traffic, counterbalanced by the Sox faring 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
Every 2025 White Sox game contains two nondescript scoreless innings from Mike Vasil until proven otherwise, but Venable resolved to stop throwing good money after bad by the close of seven innings of play. Korey Lee had been told to be ready for emergency work, and two innings of lobbing pitches apparently fits under that umbrella.
"Unfortunately when I’m pitching, bad things are happening," Lee said. "It’s still really really hard. Kudos to all the pitchers."
On the plus side of Lee's performance, it's always a rare privilege to see an inning end by a hitter nailing his own teammate on the basepaths with a line drive, as Luke Maile did in the eighth. On the downside, the Sox have three catchers on the roster and still managed to lose the DH.
Or maybe that was part of the plusses too. When a team's performance delves this deeply into farce, it's hard to tell which way is up.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox went 3-10 in their season series with the Royals, a little bump up from going 1-12 last season.
*Sox are 2-11 in games started by Civale.
*Lee allowed four hits and walked two, but only allowed one run as the Royals adapted a "let's go home soon, please" approach to baserunning.
*Quero's half speed swing pushed a grounder down the vacated third base line in the sixth, which surprised everyone by staying fair. "Everyone" included Quero, who jogged up the baseline and only reached second after Michael Massey booted it further and fans groaned at the missed opportunity for more.
As it turns out, rather than evidence of a demoralized team, it's more so just another injury issue.
"He has some hamstring stuff he’s been dealing with over the last week," Venable said. "Nothing to the point where we’re concerned about him being out there, but it is limiting him."
