Royals’ miscues result in huge hole early as they fall to the White Sox 11-5
A Herculean effort was going to be required for the Kansas City Royals to overcome four errors, which led to three unearned runs, not to mention the seven-run head start they spotted their opponents. It turned out Hercules wasn’t in the ballpark, at least not wearing the home club’s uniform.
The Royals dropped the second game of their three-game series with the Chicago White Sox 11-5 at Kauffman Stadium Saturday night. The teams were to wrap up their series Sunday afternoon. The Royals will try to avoid being swept in their home-opening series before hitting the road for two games. Right-hander Jakob Junis will make his first start of the season.
The White Sox (4-4) scored the first seven runs of the game, collecting 21 hits and six two-out RBIs.
Whit Merrifield, who started in left field and also played second base, went 3 for 5 with his third home run of the season. He now has nine RBIs in the team’s first nine games. Ryan O’Hearn had three hits, including an RBI double, while Adalberto Mondesi and Jorge Soler had two hits apiece for the Royals (3-6).
“We actually feel like we’ve been playing okay, just missing a couple timely hits here or there and not making a play or two here or there that could put us at 5-4 maybe even 6-3,” Merrifield said. “Just kind of the way the ball has been bouncing lately. Hopefully, we can start coming up with some timely hits and gain some momentum and get this thing rolling.”
The Royals’ bullpen trio of Kevin McCarthy, Jake Newberry and Kyle Zimmer held the White Sox to two runs (one earned) in 6 1/3 innings heading into the ninth after starting pitcher Ronald Bolaños gave up five runs in the first 1 2/3 innings
Zimmer pitched three scoreless innings, registering his longest outing in the majors and his longest relief appearance at any level since June 28, 2015, when he was with Low-A Lexington.
Zimmer, who initially got up in the bullpen in the second inning, entered the game to start the sixth. He allowed three hits and one walk and struck out three.
“We’ve got so many just unreal competitors down there in that pen,” Zimmer said. “Obviously, it’s nice when starters can go deep into games and we can come in there and just bang-bang-bang. But if we need to go multiple innings and carry sort of the load throughout a stretch, nobody’s scared to do it. We’ve got so much talent, so many quality arms and so many guys hungry to get the ball.”
Bolaños seemed out of sync from the beginning. He gave up four first-inning runs — one that scored on a wild pitch and the others courtesy of a three-run home run by Eloy Jimenez that hit the inside of Bubba Starling’s glove as he ran and jumped at the wall. The ball popped out and over the wall as a confused Starling looked around assuming he’d find the ball on the turf.
Bolaños gave up a no-doubt-about-it homer to White Sox center fielder Luis Robert with one out in the second inning. It traveled an estimated 415 feet to center. Robert ambushed a first-pitch fastball for his second home run of the season. Bolaños got one more out on a ground ball to shortstop before McCarthy came on in relief.
Bolaños gave up five runs on five hits (two homers) and two walks. He struck out one and had one wild pitch in 1 2/3 innings. The Royals trailed 5-0 when he exited the game.
“I thought he obviously didn’t have good feel for even his sinker,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “When you see that good of an arm bouncing some of the fastball, that’s usually a sign of him rushing a little bit. He did come out with a game plan. He tried to use all of his weapons. The guy has such good stuff, you wonder sometimes if it’s too many things he’s trying to master instead of taking advantage of a couple things he can do.”
The Royals left the bases loaded in the second and the fourth innings. They stranded 12 runners in the game.
In the second, they failed to convert after getting runners on second and third and one out. That inning ended on a Nicky Lopez ground-out to shortstop.
In the fourth, they loaded the bases with one out, but Lopez struck out and Merrifield popped out to first base to end the inning. They stranded seven runners in the first four innings.
The White Sox tacked on two more runs in the fifth, both with two outs, on a Robert RBI double to left-center and an infield single and throwing error by relief pitcher Newberry.
O’Hearn’s RBI double and Merrifield’s homer gave the Royals a three-run sixth inning. O’Hearn added an RBI single in the seventh as the Royals pulled to within three, 7-4.
The score remained that way going into the ninth. Right-handed reliever Glenn Sparkman gave up four runs (two earned) in the ninth as the White Sox squashed any hope of a KC rally.
Sparkman got two outs and made it to a 3-2 count against Yasmani Grandal with the score still 7-4 in the ninth, but Grandal’s two-run double to left-center ignited a four-run frame aided by a throwing error by Mondesi.
Franchy Cordero’s RBI double off the center-field wall in the bottom of the ninth closed out the scoring.
The Royals last four-error game came on Sept. 17, 2015.
“We can’t be a four-error team, that’s all there is to it,” Matheny said. “We know that.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 10:07 PM with the headline "Royals’ miscues result in huge hole early as they fall to the White Sox 11-5."
