With two weeks left in a season marked by disastrous late-inning work, you'd think the White Sox exhausted all the ways to lose a game this season.
You would be wrong.
Down 3-0 through six, the Royals whittled away with a run in the seventh and a run in the eighth before scoring two in the ninth.
The tying run scored from second ... on a wild pitch.
The winning run scored from second ... on an infield single.
The Royals actually scored all of their runs with the White Sox's help. The Sox just happened to save the most spectacular blunders for last.
In the seventh, Eric Hosmer reached on a "double" that Conor Gillaspie couldn't catch down the left-field line. It would've been an easier play for the shortstop with a traditional alignment, but the infield shift meant Gillaspie was on his own, and he couldn't make the play. Hosmer then came around to score on an Omar Infante single to make it a 3-1 game.
One inning later, Nori Aoki reached on a(n intentional) half-swing bouncer that forced Gillaspie to rush a throw. Gillaspie bounced it into right field, and Aoki took second. After a groundout froze him at second, he moved up to third on a wild pitch and scored on Alex Gordon's bloop single to make it a one-run game.
And then there was the ninth. Jake Petricka escaped an inherited jam in the eighth inning by retiring Billy Butler on one pitch, but his full inning wasn't so simple. With one out, Mike Moustakas doubled to left. Jarrod Dyson pinch-ran for him, which didn't pay off immediately when Alcides Escobar grounded out to third.
But with Aoki at the plate and two outs, Dyson took off for third on Petricka's sinker, and Flowers, who lost a few battles with pitches in the dirt, couldn't block this one. Dyson never stopped running, and he threw his body across home plate before Flowers' throw to Petricka, tying the game.
Then Aoki shot a double past third base, after which Terrance Gore replaced him and set a similar set of events in motion. With an 0-2 count, Gore took off for third as Lorenzo Cain hit a chopper over the mound, perfectly placed between Alexei Ramirez and Marcus Semien. Ramirez tried making a play on the run, but he couldn't glove it cleanly, and Gore came around to score to end it.
So, John Danks doesn't know how to win again, as he's tagged for a no-decision after throwing six shutout innings despite control problems. He walked four batters, but it didn't cost him because he allowed just two hits while striking out six. He also induced a key double play in the sixth, defusing a two-on-nobody-out situation by getting a 4-6-3 double play.
The White Sox scored their runs in more respectable ways, greeting James Shields with three singles in the first inning for a quick 1-0 lead. They did use the Wild Pitch Offense to their own advantage in the third, as Adam Eaton scored on a Jose Abreu strikeout. Ramirez moved to second on the play, and he came around on Gillaspie's RBI single to set up a 3-0 lead that vanished.
Record: 68-82 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights