KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chicago White Sox had one of those innings to forget Thursday against the Kansas City Royals.
The Sox walked three batters, gave up three singles, made an error that brought home three runs and surrendered a two-run homer in the seventh inning.
A one-run deficit turned into a nine-run hole for the Sox. The Royals scored eight runs in the seventh and beat the Sox 10-1 in front of 10,863 at Kauffman Stadium.
“Just one inning of baseball that got away from us,” manager Pedro Grifol said.
The Sox entered the seventh trailing 2-1.
With one out, Sox reliever Deivi García walked Nelson Velázquez and Hunter Renfroe.
Three singles — from Adam Frazier, Kyle Isbel and Maikel Garcia — followed. Isbel collected two RBIs and Garcia one on their hits, making it 5-1.
“Crooked numbers, they always have a walk in there somewhere,” Grifol said. “Walks will kill you. But (García has) been good for us, he’s been really good for us and he’ll continue to be good for us. He’ll get the ball tomorrow if the opportunity presents itself and I have a lot of confidence in our bullpen.”
The second run scored on the Isbel hit to right when Dominic Fletcher’s throw went to Braden Shewmake at second base instead of cutoff man Nicky Lopez.
“We practice that play over and over again,” Grifol said. “And you know what, we didn’t execute that play today. But we’re going to execute that play going forward because that ball is going to go right to the cutoff guy.”
Dominic Leone walked Bobby Witt Jr., loading the bases. Leone got Vinnie Pasquantino to fly out to right and appeared to escape any more damage when Salvador Perez hit a slow grounder to Shewmake. But the ball scooted by the shortstop for an error, with three runs scoring on the miscue.
“He came in, charged it hard and then he kind of broke down a little bit and the ball got up in on him,” Grifol said. “Had plenty of time there. He makes that play 99% of the time, just didn’t happen today.
“He’s been playing really good baseball. So, you know what, just flush that error right there and just keep doing what you’ve been doing. He’s been doing a really good job. We’ll clean this up, come out here and play hard tomorrow.”
MJ Melendez followed with a two-run homer to right, extending the Royals’ lead to 10-1. That would be the final score as the Sox — who also hit into four double plays — fell to 1-5.
“Got to keep battling,” Sox DH Gavin Sheets said. “Got to show up tomorrow. Can’t lose confidence, can’t lose the expectation to win. That’s most important. You have to come to the field expecting to win.
“It’s not the start we wanted. Most have been extremely close games, but we have to come expecting to win every day.”
