Nick Pratto’s big evening serves as the spark in 9-7 win over White Sox

The Royals offense this year has often been a bit of an adventure. They’ve gone on 20+ inning scoreless streaks, but over the last two games the Royals offense has scored a total of 24 runs. Yes, 24—tonight, the Royals hung nine on the White Sox in the South Side.

Central to the Royals’ offensive powerhouse was Nick Pratto, who had a career night. Pratto notched four hits in the day—three of them of the extra base variety, and two of them as the dong variety. Here they were: once in the second inning, and once in the fourth inning. Note Pratto’s very quick swing.

Pratto was joined in Dongtown by Salvador Perez, who hit a two-run blast against Lucas Giolito. Giolito had a bad day, coughing up five runs in his 5.1 innings, though he did strike out seven Royals.

For a game that had so much scoring, one would think that there would be one big inning. But that wasn’t the case! The Royals chipped away the whole game, spreading out their nine runs across seven consecutive inning. Michael A. Taylor had a home run, Salvador Perez, Michael Massey, and Bobby Witt Jr. had doubles. It was a great time had by all.

On the Royals’ pitching front, Brady Singer cruised through four innings. The de facto Royals ace looked like he was in for another one of those six or seven run games. But while the Royals spread their runs across a bunch of innings, the White Sox knocked Singer out of the game in the fifth.

Singer allowed a single to AJ Pollock, but with two outs, the White Sox kept putting good swings on the ball. Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez singled on line drives, and Gavin Sheets smacked a three-run home run. After the dreaded Cal Edlred visit, Singer gave up another two singles and one more run, and his day was done. Jose Cuas achieved the last out.

Not content to leave the score as it was, Sheets knocked his second home run of the day against Scott Barlow. But given a four-run lead, Barlow dutifully got the last two outs of the inning via a strikeout.

For those of you who enjoy defense: Michael Massey had a nice diving grab! The minor league Gold Glove winner for second base, he sure looks the part in the bigs, too.

The Royals continue to play the White Sox this week on their road trip. Game two starts tomorrow.