Not only have the White Sox been outscored by the Royals 40-28 this season, they are batting just.
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Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday, August 8, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo.
Meanwhile, the White Sox are back to their old ways, dropping their first two games to the Tampa Bay Rays and losing 5 out of the last 6 after running off 7 straight wins.
Kansas City is a -120 favorite against Chicago and the Over/Under (O/U) for this game is sitting at eight runs.
“We had plenty of opportunities”, manager Robin Ventura said. “He believes he needs get back in there and get after it. We’re better when he’s in there”. We had a big one there in the eighth. Morales and Perez absorbed back-to-back run-producing extends by having a pair of outside in a four-run fifth. Tyler Flowers walked and Thompson doubled in the eighth with no outs, but Tyler Saladino and Abreu struck out and Cabrera flied out to end the threat.
LaRoche hit a solo homer, his 10 of the season, with one out in the ninth against Greg Holland to make it 3-2. “You’ve got to keep those runners off the base, and they battled”.
One would have been sufficient in any number of spots with runners in scoring position.
After Abreu’s blast, left fielder Melky Cabrera doubled down the left-field line and stopped at third on right fielder Avisail Garcia’s single. But LaRoche’s fly ball to left was too shallow and Alexei Ramirez popped out.
Jeff Samardzija, who gave up 9 runs in 4.2 innings in his last start against the New York Yankees.
Doug joined ESPN Chicago in July 2010 and covers the Chicago White Sox for ESPNChicago.com and ESPN Radio 1000.
None of that helped Danks, who early on appeared to have his Royals magic working yet again.
The Royals bullpen was stellar in the final three innings without Davis. The impact with ground was significant enough to merit Herm Schneider to order a MRI on Eaton’s shoulder.
Kansas City finally broke through in the fifth inning on a two-out RBI double by Alex Rios.
Cain, who tripled in the first inning but was stranded, doubled into the left-field corner to score Ben Zobrist for the initial run in the sixth.
That triumph pushed the Royals to 35-18 at home and kept their lead in the AL Central at a comfortable 9 1/2 games. Eric Hosmer and Kendrys Morales have been red hot, which hopefully continues here at home.
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“I made a couple of mistakes that I got burned with, but I felt like it was a good day”, Danks said. Duffy continues to pitch well since his return which the best outing being at the Cell when he almost threw a complete game.
