The Royals have not won a series since April 14.
They had an amazing chance this weekend. The White Sox, who aren’t particularly good, were in town. The Royals won the first game of the series. They just needed to win either Saturday or Sunday to end that streak.
Guess who lost both Saturday and Sunday?
The Royals, now 25 games under .500, lost to the White Sox, 5-2. It was never an interesting game. Chicago got two runs on a homer by Eloy Jimenez in the second inning. That was all they needed. I do want to point out how deep of a homer it was though; the thing cleared all three walls in center field and was marked at 471 feet.
Jorge Soler did hit an absolutely ridiculous solo homer of his own in the the fourth inning. It went 445 feet. He has 17 homers and is on pace to break the franchise record.
Glenn Sparkman pitched well. He got through six innings having only allowed two runs. They put him back out there with 86 pitches in the seventh, but despite walking the nine hitter, Ned Yost opted to keep his laboring starter in the contest. Of course, it backfired, as Yoan Moncada hit a single back up the middle to make it 3-1.
Chicago got another run later against Scott Barlow, who has suddenly become a Brandon Maurer clone. Then the ninth inning happened and I don’t even care to recap it. Pitchers bounced grounders off their feet. A Nicky Lopez throw wound up near the dugout. A whole bunch of dumb stuff happened. The Royals also scored a meaningless run.
It’s just getting exhausting at this point. Whit Merrifield, Alex Gordon, and Adalberto Mondesi, batting 1-2-3 today, went 0 for 12 with seven strikeouts. Chicago starter Reynaldo Lopez entered today with an ERA of 6.62, and he carved up the Royals like it was nothing.
Sparkman’s line: 6.2 innings, 8 hits, three runs (two earned), a walk, and two strikeouts. His ERA is 3.58. Like it or not, he’s been the best starting pitcher on the roster this year. The only explanation is that Cal Eldred has spoken to him less than the other starters.
Also, Steve Physioc called the game, so even had the Royals won 90-0, we all still would have lost. It was like we were subjected to three hours of a man reading an almanac of baseball’s most boring statistics. He should be DFA’d.
Tomorrow is Diamond of Dreams day, so the team is off. Then they have that three-game set with Detroit, including that Thursday game that’s being played at the Omaha AAA stadium. The poor fans that were all excited to attend will have to endure Homer Bailey. Poor them.