White Sox 10, Royals 7 (in 12 innings) : I wish I understood this

 "The way we played so far in this game, its right where it should be." - Hawk Harrelson, in the bottom of the 4th inning, trailing 5-0.

  Jeff Francis out-pitched Mark Buehrle this afternoon. He got ahead in the count and attacked the Sox hitters. He made a couple mistakes but wasn't really punished for them. Mark Buehrle was right there with him through the first three innings, making short work of the opposition, but he trailed 2-0. Buehrle didn't have great command, he was behind in the count quite a bit and left a few balls out over the heart of the plate.

Defensively the Sox were bad.

 Lastings Milledge had an awful read on a fly ball that should have been caught in the first. He came in on it and it fell for a double over his head.  Milledge double clutched getting a throw back in to the infield, allowing another run to score that they may have been able to contest with a play at the plate. Then the rest of the team tried to make him feel better by looking just as bad. A throw home on an RBI single was fired back to second base to get the advancing runner but Alexei went with a swipe tag instead of keeping his glove down. The runner was safe and would later score.

 Konerko got into the act in the 7th inning, fielding a chopper down the line of his fingertips, he back-pedaled out of bounds and fired a throw to Humber's knee caps. The runner was safe and the Sox had their second official error of the game.

 Mark Teahen came into the game to play left field for some reason. He dropped a routine fly ball in the bottom of the 8th. The Sox third official error.

 Morel misplayed a ball in the 11th, bringing the grand total to five defensive gaffes this afternoon.

                     "Four of the six runs we have given to them." - Hawk, at the end of the 8th inning.

Offensively, the Sox were bad (against Francis).

 The Sox had what looked like a scoring chance in the second. Quentin tried to take the extra base on a hard hit ball into the left field corner by Alexei Ramirez, but was thrown out by the good arm of Alex Gordon. Gordon showed he had a gun yesterday, Q should have known better.

 The White Sox had runners on first and third with nobody out in the 4th inning. They also had 1st and 3rd in the 5th with two outs but couldn't get the extra 90 ft. to score a run. Only Carlos Quentin managed a decent at bat in this situation. He started out 0-2(on a called strike that was way outside) but battled back to a full count, fouling a couple balls off before he flied out to right field, however it wasn't deep enough to score Beckham from third. That at bat was sandwiched by Konerko and Ramirez striking out on 3 pitches. In the 5th Beckham went down on 3 pitches, too.

 But while I started writing this recap the Sox started chipping away at the lead.

 Ramon Castro went yard with a blastro to put the Sox on the board, and the littlest DH chased the Royals starter from the game with a RBI double in the 7th inning. Pierre then welcomed the relief pitcher by stealing third, but he was left there like Beckham and Morel before him.

 Quentin stayed hot with a solo home run in the 8th cutting the lead to two.

 The Sox had no business being in this game. They say in baseball you lose 60, you win 60, and its what you do with the other 40 games that makes your season.

This was one of the losses.

With their last at bats in the 9th, Ozzie pulled Ramon Castro(you know, the guy who just hit a HR) for A.J. Pierzynski who grounded out to second. Brent Morel also grounded out to second.

Then the top of the order made two out magic happen.

 Matt Thornton, completely rested with a whopping 2/3 of an inning on his arm this season came in for the save situation. He blew it. The Royals tied it up in the 9th.  Damn these first place Royals.

 Thornton settled down to work two innings and was relieved by Sale. Sale pitched around a fielding error by Morel, and was rewarded with the W when the Sox put up a three spot in the top of the 12th.

"It hit him in the butt, and there's not much there to hit!" -Steve Stone, on Chris Sale's 1-3 put out.

Two games in two days in Kansas City and it only took 24 innings to get it done.

The first road trip of the season concludes with our 3-2 White Sox coming home to face the 0-5 Rays tomorrow.

 Notes:

*Carlos Quentin's day- 4 for 6, 2 runs, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2.167 OPS

*Mark Teahen is a worthless piece of garbage.

*Lastings Milledge was the only Sox starter without a hit. 0-3 K