If worrying about the back half of the rotation was getting tiresome, well, here is something else to think about.
1. The White Sox have scored four runs total in their last three games, failed to record a hit with runners in scoring position this series, lost four-straight series, and have lost five games in the division standings in less than two weeks, with the Indians still playing Saturday.
They had a great start to the year and earned themselves a great head start, but with Saturday’s no-show by the offense, they have exhausted most of the spoils of that start, and are now more simply division contenders rather than frontrunners. And they happen to be in this position while playing their worst ball.
2. The Sox didn’t need a huge rally to come back against a tough Royals bullpen, but got far less than that. A leadoff walk to Dioner Navarro and newly-returned Mike Moustakas mishandling an Adam Eaton bunt loaded the bases against lefty reliever Brian Flynn in the seventh. But Joakim Soria stepped in with the heart of the order coming up and escaped with a double play and a strikeout to leave with just a run across.
Soria would deliver two clean innings before giving way to Wade Davis in the ninth who, despite needing to pitch over a two-out walk, was Wade Davis. Side-armed righty Peter Moylan delivered five scoreless outs as well.
3. Getting to the starter is a huge mandate against the Royals, but given another spot-starting injury replacement, the White Sox offense could offer no resistance. Granted, Danny Duffy throwing 95-97 mph is not the typical journeyman, but he was extending himself on loan from the bullpen and still managed to give the Royals 4.1 scoreless innings before hitting 60 pitches.
He wasn’t perfect, as Sox hitting wasted two singles in the first, a deep Brett Lawrie blast to center died on the warning track in the second, and Melky Cabrera missed a game-tying home run in the fourth by inches before being stranded at second.
4. Our own Ethan Spalding brusquely described White Sox starter Miguel Gonzalez‘s path to victory as “he just needs nearly perfect location to be successful and anything below that gets him killed.” Despite the grim forecast that suggests, Gonzalez achieved it Saturday afternoon. After a wild first inning that saw Alcides Escobar single and come around on an Eric Hosmer sacrifice fly, Gonzalez cruised through four-straight scoreless frames, striking out four of five during one stretch over the third and fourth innings.
A bold decision to leave him in for the sixth inning produced a booming Lorenzo Cain home run to left-center to give the Royals a 2-0 lead, but he wrapped a strong six-inning day with six hits, the two runs allowed, eight strikeouts and amazingly — after an awful Sunday in New York — zero walks.
5. Hopefully no one was holding out for a Jose Abreu revival on this day. The struggling big man went 1-for-4 with a shanked single to right field when Duffy busted him inside, saw his season slugging percentage drop below .400 and lumbered around very slowly just to amp up the anxiety. He was at the plate when the White Sox pushed their first run across in the seventh, but did not credited for an RBI after grounding into a bases loaded double play.
Lawrie did managed to snap an 0-for-19 slump, though.
Team Record: 25-18
Next game is Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. Kansas City on WGN
Lead Image Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki // USA Today Sports Images