Royals defeat White Sox, 2-0

You would not be blamed if you were a football fan and spent the majority of this baseball game cheering for the team across the street. Their game, after all, ended up being much more exciting. Not to mention the fact that they’ve got a lot more to play for, their season is just starting. Hopes and dreams are endless.

The Royals, however, would like to remind you that they’re noooot quite out of it, yet.

Chris Sale had a very good day. He scattered eight hits and a walk through eight innings while striking out twelve. But he did make a few mistake pitches.

One of those came in the first inning, Paulo Orlando belted a pitch deep and very, very high into left center field, it wasn’t deep enough to be a home run and it should have been a relatively easy play for Melky Cabrera due to it’s height. Melky, however, decided he’d rather watch Adam Eaton run. And boy did Eaton run. He started in right center and finished by crashing into the wall left of left-center, catching the baseball in the process.

Another mistake came in the second inning to the very first batter Sale faced, he fired a fastball on the inside edge of the zone. Under ordinary circumstances it might have had a better result, but Kendrys Morales brought his hands in as close to his chest as humanly possible and used his muscles to launch the ball into the Royals’ bullpen. The Royals led 1-0.

In the top of the sixth, again facing the lead-off hitter, Chris Sale made his final mistake of the game. Eric Hosmer blasted another home run into left field, just over the leaping glove of Adam Eaton, again having run a great distance to make an attempt on a ball that Cabrera had given up on. It was Hosmer’s career-high twenty-third home run. It was also his third home run off Sale both this season and in their respective careers; no other left-hander has as many home runs off the Chicago ace.

From the Royals' side Ian Kennedy recovered from his recent bout of poor outings, sort of. He allowed only a single hit over six innings while striking out six of his own. He also walked four, none of which scored

The only hit Kennedy allowed came to Eaton, who was the White Sox lead off hitter, today on a ground ball single into right field. Eaton spent the remainder of the inning dancing and hopping at first base trying to distract Kennedy. Kennedy could not be so upset; he struck out Tim Anderson and got Cabrera to pop the ball up. Then he picked off Eaton for good measure just as he was starting his routine again before Jose Abreu could bat.

Kennedy managed to walk the bases loaded in the third, including the number eight and number nine hitters. He escaped the inning with a called strike out on an outside pitch to Eaton for the second out, followed by the third walk, and finally a moderately deep fly ball on a 3-2 pitch to Cabrera which may have been ball four.

Peter Moylan and Kelvin Herrera each pitched perfect innings. Wade Davis made it interesting in the ninth, allowing a final single to Eaton, a walk to Cabrera, and using 23 pitches, but ultimately got the job done and collected Rex's proverbial check.

The Royals are still mathematically in the race and will start a four game series with the woeful and suddenly Billy Butler-less Oakland Athletics tomorrow night in Kansas City.