Royals crush White Sox 12-1

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at an aspect of sportswriting: every game has a story. Usually, the story is clear. Sometimes, it is not, such as in the case of a back-and-forth contest in the later innings; in these cases, every event can be the own capstone of the story—until the next one follows.

The story for today’s game was of the simple variety: the Kansas City Royals entered today as the worst team in Major League Baseball but nevertheless simply trashed the Chicago White Sox 12-1. It was never close.

Ironically, when the story is that simple, the recap is often pretty short. You do not need me to point out every hit or clutch walk the Royals had (not when they had 20 baserunners). And with the White Sox scoring one run, you know the pitching was good.

So we’ll keep this to a few key points: Cole Ragans has turned in absolutely dominant performances every time for over a month. He again dominated today, tossing six scoreless innings, striking out seven White Sox batters, and only giving up one hit (and one baserunner).

Bobby Witt Jr. got the day off, but it did not matter. On the offensive side of the ball, the Royals started scoring early. Edward Olivares, fresh from the northern side of the I-29 express, smacked his first of two home runs in the first inning.

Nelson Velazquez hit his 10th home run on the season in the fourth inning. This one extended the Royals’ lead to 5-0.

...and in the next inning Olivares hit his second homer, aforementioned in an above paragraph. It was his first multi-homer game.

Kansas City stopped scoring after the fifth inning, but by that point they had scored in every single inning and turned in a seven-spot in said fifth inning.

Put it this way: five Royals had at least two hits. The White Sox got three hits. Total. In the whole game. Only Salvador Perez was held hitless among starting Royals position players. Matt Duffy even pinch hit and notched a hit. It was a hoot.

Best of all, this game was over in two hours and 39 minutes. That’s some efficiency right there. The new pitch clock rules are doing exactly what they should be doing: shortening games while still allowing offenses to hum. Today was a great game for the Royals and a win for MLB rule changes, too.