This is going to be a very recap, because there is very little to recap and even less to remember. Tonight, the Chicago White Sox jumped out to an early lead and dominated the Kansas City Royals tonight to the tune of a 7-0 lead.
The White Sox delighted the dozens of fans at Rate Field by hitting three RBI doubles in the first inning, all of which were clean line drives to the outfield. Royals starter Noah Cameron managed to get through the second and third innings without any more damage, but he could not say the same in the fourth inning, when back-to-back home runs by Korey Lee and Brooks Baldwin hit home runs to put the White Sox up 6-0.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Royals only struck out four times but were completely flummoxed by the movement of White Sox starter Shane Smith’s pitches. They rarely squared up the ball, and per Statcast only had one batted ball with an expected batting average above .500 (the White Sox, meanwhile, had eight). Mike Yastrzemski and Bobby Witt Jr. had one double each, but those were the only two hits. The third through the ninth spots in the order came up to the plate a combined 23 times and reached a combined one (1) time on a White Sox error, so. Not a good way to win a game there.
Daniel Lynch IV gave up one additional run in the seventh inning to push the score to its final 7-0 resting place.
All told, this was probably one of the worst losses of the season for the Royals. They delta between starting pitching performances was gigantic, and even when Kansas City got to the bullpen in the eighth inning it seemed as if they were mentally checked out by that point. And considering that the White Sox are on pace for 103 losses, you’d have hoped for at least a bit of a fight.
The good news, however, is that even though the White Sox are a bad team, losing to Smith—a pretty good starting pitcher—is a thing that happens sometimes. Plus, none of the bullpen arms in the back end of the pen had to throw a pitch or even warm up, which is a boon for the Royals. Additionally, as I type this, the Cleveland Guardians already lost tonight and the Seattle Mariners are losing.
Quietly, the Royals have lost four of their last six games and have lost three of four on this road trip. They’ll need to win the next two to bring the trip back to even and return to Kauffman Stadium with some momentum.
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