White Sox 4, Royals 2: Back on track!

The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2, to improve their record to 64-66. It was a great all-around effort from the offense, defense, and pitching to gain a game on Cleveland and Minnesota.

The White Sox threatened to score in the bottom of the first inning off of lefty Kris Bubic, but couldn’t do any damage with bases loaded and one out. Lance Lynn blew through the first three innings with no hits, and it wasn’t until the top of the fourth inning that the Royals got on the board, with a solo home run from Bobby Witt Jr. Josh Harrison and Romy González combined for an inning ending double-play to end any other threats.

AJ Pollock took some offense to that Royals lead, and immediately fired back with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Thank you very much, Elvis.

Andrus hit his first home run in a White Sox uniform, and boy, did it go far.

This one broke the tie, and gave the White Sox a 2-1 lead.

Lynn continued to silently dominate his way through the lineup, pitching seven solid innings with just four hits, one run, and eight strikeouts. This performance moved his ERA down to 4.70. Safe to say he’s back?

Bubic was done with his night and replaced by Amir Garrett to start the seventh inning. Bubic took a tough loss, going six innings with five hits, two runs, one strikeout, and four walks.

Garrett immediately got into some trouble after a leadoff walk to Gavin Sheets and back-to-back singles by Harrison and González. Garrett got the hook, for Collin Snider, and Andrus went on to score an RBI ground out to extend the lead to 3-1.

José Abreu added some insurance with a two-out RBI single to score González.

Kendall Graveman started the top of the eighth inning and was thankful to see this leaping catch from González at second base. I never would have thought González would be mentioned this much in a story at the end of August, but here we are.

Luis Robert checked into the game in the top of the ninth inning as a defensive replacement, so it’s good to see he is alive and well, and hopefully ready to play again soon.

Liam Hendriks was in to start the ninth, and was rudely interrupted by a little bit of a two-out rally from the Royals starting with a Michael A. Taylor triple and Michael Massey single to cut the lead to 4-2. Hunter Dozier came to the plate as the tying run, but struck out to end the game.

Hopefully the team can gain some momentum from this win, as they look to close out tomorrow by taking the series. Game time will be at 1:10 p.m., and surprise ace Johnny Cueto will be on the mound against a righty with a pretty cool mustache, Daniel Mengden. Get ready for the quick turnaround tomorrow, and hopefully a win!