The White Sox and Royals played two games this afternoon, but squeezed them both into nine innings.
For the first 3 1/2 innings, it looked like the game would last until roughly Thursday and end up 46-44. For the next 5 1/2, both relief staffs did really good Mark Buehrle imitations, so the game ended up in 2:52, with KC up by a run.
The Royals scored one in the first off Anthony Kay on a single, stolen base and RBI single by Carter Jensen as he stretched his hitting streak to 19. It only took two batters against Luinder Avila for the Sox to take the lead in the bottom half, after a Sam Antonacci walk and a 407-foot shot into the wind and the bleachers by Miguel Vargas, his 19th blast of the season.
Kay then gave two back in the top of the second on a hit batter, a Colson Montgomery error on a routine grounder (not his day, he was also 0-for-4 with two of Chicago’s six strikeouts), a single and a sac fly, but Avila returned the kindness and handed the Sox back a 4-3 lead on two-out hits by Antonacci, Vargas, and Kyle Teel, the last two with broken bats.
Not one to accept gifts, Kay then gave up another run in the top of the third to make it 4-4, and yet another in the fourth to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. At that point the game had already lasted longer than an hour-and-a-half thanks to a superabundance of pitches (73 in 3 2/3 by Kay, 86 in four by Avila) as well as all the running around the bases by the two teams, who had 13 hits off the starters.
Cue up the second game, in which five White Sox relievers tossed 5 1/3 innings of four-hit, one walk shutout ball (Seranthony Domínguez was even good, probably because he pitched the sixth instead of the ninth), and five Royals out of the pen did even better, giving up just one hit in five innings of work.
It should be noted Bryan Hudson was helped considerably by an excellent throw by Braden Montgomery after Starling Marte lashed a shot down the right field line:
Nailing Marte turned out to be really important at the time, because Salvador Pérez followed with a single to left.
With the surprisingly shutdown bullpen work (especially a surprise for the Royals staff), the 5-4 score at the end of 3 1/2 innings was the same at the end of nine.
The White Sox still won the series and had a 4-2 homestand. Their record is an amazing 43-39, and with a Guardians win the two teams are again tied atop the AL Central. The Sox now head to Baltimore for three games starting tomorrow, followed by four in Cleveland.