White Sox are back in first place with 7-4 win
Dane Dunning struggled a bit tonight, going 4 ⅔ innings giving up three earned runs on five hits while striking out four and walking four. His opponent and fellow University of Florida pitcher Brady Singer also struggled, surrendering five earned runs off of 10 hits while striking out five and walking only one.
The first inning started off on the right foot, with back-to-back singles from Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada, and a sac fly from Edwin Encarnación gave the Sox a 1-0 lead.
The second inning started off on similar note, with back-to-back singles from Eloy Jiménez and James McCann. Nick Madrigal, who is singling Royals pitching to death, reached on, yep, an infield single to score Eloy with a 2-0 South Side lead.
Dunning walked Alex Gordon on four straight pitches in the bottom of the second, and the veteran would eventually score on a single from Adalberto Mondesi to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
The White Sox scored yet again in the fourth inning. Nomar Mazara and Madrigal singled and TA7 hit a sac fly to bring Mazara home.
Dunning ran into more trouble in the fourth, beginning with another leadoff walk to start the inning, Gordon singled and Maikel Franco scored on a fielder's choice. Tim's throw was on the first-base side, but it still appeared that James McCann got the tag down for the out. The White Sox didn't challenge the call, and Mondesi singled again, to tie the game at 3-3.
Edwin drew a walk in the top of the fifth. Eloy singled and Edwin put the burners on to make it to third. A wild pitch from Brady Singer scored Edwin with the eventual winning run, and the Sox had the lead back, 4-3.
José Abreu extended his hitting streak to 18 games, delivering with a huge, two-out double to score Mazara and Moncada. With those two RBIs he now leads baseball with 38.
Eloy joined the party with an RBI double, which allowed Luis Robert to score all the way from first base and extend the lead to 7-3.
Alex Colomé had to come in for a four-out save, but the Royals didn't go down easy. A walk and two singles gave the Royals a run in the ninth, but nonetheless Colomé was still able to secure the win with a 40-pitch outing. He may be toast for the series now.
In the last eight games, no White Sox starter has gone more than five innings. Lucas Giolito takes the bump tomorrow, and let's hope he has a deep start to rest the bullpen.
In a game tonight where the Sox hit no home runs, I am expecting a home run party tomorrow evening.