Yolmer Sanchez provided the closing act in his two-day performance, hitting an RBI single in the ninth inning that sent the Chicago White Sox over the Kansas City Royals 2-1 Tuesday in the resumption of a suspended game.
Not even an early three-run lead against White Sox starter Lucas Giolito, who has dominated Kansas City over his career, was enough as the Royals fell, 4-3, on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Alex Gordon got the Royals going in the first inning of the nightcap. After Whit Merrifield singled and Adalberto Mondesi walked, Gordon jumped on a 2-1 changeup and sent it over the left-center-field wall for a three-run home run.
Giolito came into the game with a 4-0 record and a 2.27 ERA in his career against the Royals. And he settled down after the Gordon homer, retiring 20 of the next 21 hitters he faced.
Royals starter Brad Keller got the first 10 hitters to pound the ball into the ground. But as was the case most of the night, Keller got a bit unlucky as five of those 10 ground balls found holes in the infield. He went six innings altogether and gave up 10 hits, all singles, and four runs.
After a rough stretch of starts, Keller may be finding his command again. He walked just one in six innings — he had walked 41 in 65 innings coming into the game.
Keller kept the Royals close with a magnificent escape act in the sixth. James McCann singled to right and went to third on an infield grounder by Yolmer Sanchez that caromed off first baseman Ryan O’Hearn’s glove. Sanchez took second on the throw to third.
But with the infield in, Keller got Jose Rondon and Charlie Tilson to ground out to third. Then, Keller got Leury Garcia on a weak fly to left, keeping the score at 4-3.
