It only took the White Sox one inning to score more runs than they put forth in any game of the three-game sweep at Kauffman Stadium the weekend before last.
Then they went and outscored their output from that entire series.
Paired with an excessively strong start from Shane Smith, the White Sox notched their second consecutive lopsided shutout against an AL Central opponent, and a third consecutive victory overall.
"Every part of the game, defensively was outstanding, baserunning, guys were flying around the bases," said a proud Will Venable. "Shane and [Tyler] Gilbert with the job they did on the mound and then the collective effort offensively. Really nice team win."
The White Sox jumped on Noah Cameron for three first-inning runs, all scoring on doubles. Edgar Quero doubled home Chase Meidroth, who led off with a line-drive single that handcuffed a leaping Maikel García. Lenyn Sosa followed by slicing a double to the right-center gap to score Quero, and while Luis Robert Jr. popped out to Vinnie Pasquantino for the first of three times on the evening, Curtis Mead hustled out one more run-scoring double before Cameron could finally get back to the dugout.
At that point, Smith had all the runs he needed. In fact, the White Sox would have more doubles than the Royals had hits, although both of Kansas City's were also of the two-base variety.
Smith caught a break with the first one, although bad luck had preceded it. Meidroth got eaten up by a Kyle Isbel grounder up the middle to extend the third inning, and then Mike Yastrzemski took an outside-corner changeup to the left-center gap. It would have easily scored Isbel had it not bounced on the warning track and over the wall, resulting in a ground-rule double that forced Isbel to return to third.
That still left the unenviable task of facing Bobby Witt Jr. with two on, but Smith jammed Witt with his first pitch, and Mead expedited the throw across the diamond in time to strand the runners.
Yastrzemski was the only Royal to reach on his own accord against Smith, as he drew a walk with one out in the sixth, but Smith once again subdued Witt in his wake, getting a hard grounder right at Meidroth for a deftly turned 6-4-3 double play that ended the inning. Smith ended up completing a seventh inning for the first time in his big league career, and were he not already well past his career high in innings pitched at either the college or professional levels, he would've been sent out for the eighth. He threw just 80 pitches on the evening, 59 of which were some form of fastball. He mainly worked fastball-sinker until the Royals got him in trouble, and that never happened.
"Today's probably of the worst pregame bullpen I've thrown all year," Smith said. "It's kind of how it works. I've had good pre-game bullpens where it doesn't translate. I've had bad ones where it doesn't. So I think the bullpen is to make adjustments from there to the game, that's what I've been trying to use it for."
Gilbert was able to guide the shutout across the finish line, surviving a Witt double with two outs in the ninth by catching Vinnie Pasquantino's popout in front of the mound. Smith had to settle for his first victory since June 10, which was 10 starts ago.
Although the White Sox didn't need any insurance after the first, they were happy to inflate Cameron's ERA further. Korey Lee turned on a dangling 1-0 changeup and launched it over the White Sox bullpen for a two-run shot that made it 5-0 in the fourth, and Brooks Baldwin then made it back-to-back on a 1-0 cutter for a six-run margin.
"Shoutout to my brother [Kellen Lee], he's done great for me throughout the time," Lee said of handling his demotion to Triple-A. "He does mental skills over for the Mariners. So I talk to him a lot, and he's done wonders for me."
Against Daniel Lynch IV in the seventh, Miguel Vargas collected his second double of the game and his 30th of the season, and scored on Lenyn Sosa's single to left two batters later.
Bullet points:
*Baldwin followed up his homer in the fourth with a tremendous sliding catch into the sidewall down the left-field line in the top of the fifth.
*Cameron tied a career high with six runs allowed, as his ERA increased from 2.53 to 2.93.
*Witt's double prevented this one from wrapping up in under two hours, which would've tied the shortest nine-inning game of the season. Instead, the clock stopped at 2:00 even.
*The White Sox needed just 110 pitches for this shutout, as opposed to 161 pitches the day before.
