Trade deadline sweeps week
By James Fegan
The White Sox are trying to fence their few functioning elements for value before stepping back into the abyss for the remainder of the season, the Royals are trying to come up with an accurate idea of what the hell they are. What better way to confound both efforts than having the White Sox offense no-show while the Royals sweep their way to the sacred lands of .500 baseball.
As Sunday’s masterpiece of professional competition lurched into a 12th inning of play, the White Sox went about eliminating boundaries to the Royals’ success. Gordon Beckham never found a grip on a routine Jarrod Dyson grounder to second. When Dyson inevitably took off for second, Josh Phegley dumped a throw in front and to the right of the bag, which got a token effort from Alexei Ramirez on its way out to center field. It was then that Donnie Veal applied the ole overcorrection and grooved a belt-high fastball that Alex Gordon hammered out to center to secure a 4-2 Royals win.
The White Sox had a brief dalliance with extra-inning glory themselves. A leadoff single in the tenth inning by Dayan Viciedo transformed into pinch-runner Blake Tekotte, who was swift enough to move up to second on a routine groundout, but not swift enough to overcome an awful jump on an Alejandro De Aza single to center. When Salvador Perez received Dyson’s throw home, Tekotte was only beginning to enter the picture.
Otherwise, the White Sox went through the last six innings of the game without getting a runner to third base, wrapping a weekend where they scored three runs.
Hector Santiago easily had the worst outing of the series of any Sox starter, but managed to skirt away from the designation of a loss thanks to Royals runners getting abandoned on the basepaths like soldiers who hadn’t gotten word that their side had surrendered yet. Santiago hit a batter and walked four, including three in the fourth inning alone, but escaped with only a run scored on a Miguel Tejada double. Missing bats and mowing down lefties Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon carried him through that threat, and he’s ended the day with only two runs allowed in 6.2 innings of work.
The White Sox offense, among their many crimes, also enabled an entire afternoon of “Cy Chen” nonsense. After a promising first inning that saw Paul Konerko whirr to life like a cobwebbed golem and line a run-scoring single, the Sox went hitless against the Panamanian veteran until Adam Dunn knotted the game at 2 with a booming home run to dead-center field.
Hmm…this is barely 400+ words for a 12-inning game. Let’s see, the White Sox were actually 2-6 with runners in scoring position, which shows that a lacks of opportunities is the problem over anything else. Josh Phegley is an overeager mess at the plate. The team looks dead on their feet, which allows for a lot of ad hominem attacks, which is about as pleasant as the “Cy Chen” comments. Thank you, White Sox baseball, for your unyielding brutality.
Team Record: 40-62
Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan