A rare Carlos Sanchez home run lifted Sale, who pitched his American League-leading sixth complete-game, and the Chicago White Sox to a 7-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
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Paulo Orlando had two doubles, walked, was hit by a pitch and scored three times. “They scored the one run off him, but they didn’t square anything up – a ball off the end of the bat, then the little squibbler that Esky tried to cut the lead run down and bang-bang missed it and then like a three or four hopper up the middle, kept the ball down, changed speeds really well”.
In his past four starts, Volquez has given up 20 earned runs on 32 hits and nine walks in 18 1/3 innings for a 9.82 ERA.
Danny Duffy (12-2) gave up eight hits and three earned runs while walking two and striking out eight over seven innings.
The White Sox trailed 4-2 in the eighth Friday when Chicago third baseman Todd Frazier ducked out of the way of Kelvin Herrera’s high and inside pitch.
After taking a flawless game through 4 ⅓ during Friday’s 7-1 win over the Royals, Sale lost the bid on a Salvador Perez ground ball, then carried the White Sox through another 4 ⅔ frames for his sixth complete game of the season.
Duffy (12-2) was the beneficiary of the Royals’ offensive splurge.
“But just a rare one for Q”. Overall, he’s walking about as many batters per nine innings as he did during his 6.2 fWAR, Cy Young-contending 2015 season, but his strikeouts have plummeted from last year’s career-best mark of 11.82 K/9 – a number that could be hard to rectify over his last three starts of 2016. We talk about that all the time, trying to get a couple here, a couple there. The home run gave the Sox a 6-4 lead en route to a 7-4 victory over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The second was an Eric Hosmer RBI single, and the third was Kendrys Morales’ double to the right-field gap.
I asked him about it – after all, it was a pretty relaxed league – and Russ said he already had friends and didn’t need any more. After White Sox manager Robin Ventura requested a review, the call on the field was reversed after 68 seconds and Anderson was safe. I think just staying within myself for the most part. In every other inning, however, none of the Royals’ batters made it past first base, and Sale escaped with his 3.03 ERA largely intact.
The third inning included a 4-minute, 25-second review that included both managers making a challenge on the same play. “He’s getting better”, Ventura said.
The first pitch to Frazier was a 97 miles per hour fastball that nearly took his head off; Frazier spun out of the box and glared at the mound. Jose Abreu singled, but Cabrera’s pop up ended the inning. The Royals are getting odds of -130 to win, while the White Sox are getting a money line of +120 to prevail. White Sox RHP Miguel Gonzalez and Royals LHP Jason Vargas are the Saturday probables.
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Frazier finished with three hits in four trips. White Sox DH Justin Morneau has not played in six games because of a neck injury. The game is a makeup from a May 26 rainout.
