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Today’s game suggested the White Sox used up their week’s supply of good baseball with one game remaining.
After sweeping the Astros, beating the Royals in the opener and losing an enjoyable back-and-forth affair on Saturday, the White Sox resumed their rebuilding ways early in this one.
Derek Holland and his defense gave up four in the second and four in the third to put this one out of reach early. Holland was rough, giving up seven hits, three walks and two wild pitches over two innings and three batters.
The Sox defense didn’t help. Leury Garcia made one of his ill-advised throws home that short-hopped Kevan Smith and got away. All runs remained earned because the error came on a hit — it just allowed a run to score earlier than it would’ve and took away all force plays.
The Sox did tag Jason Vargas for three runs in the fifth for the faintest whiff of a ballgame at 8-3, but the Royals answered with a four-run sixth to make it moot.
Some White Sox hitters were able to pad their stats, at least. Tim Anderson added to his surge with a two-run homer, Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia had two-hit games, and Nicky Delmonico continues to reach base in all sorts of ways, with a double, a walk and an HBP. He also came close to adding more to his line, but Lorenzo Cain took away a double in right center, and Alex Gordon ended the game by stealing a homer away from him in the same direction.
Record: 45-70 | Box score