White Sox bullpen implodes in 5-4 loss to Royals

What started out as an excellent game behind starting pitcher Martín Pérez ended up turning completely upside down in the last two innings, as the bullpen gave up five runs and blew the lead in the ninth, allowing the Royals (68-65) to tie the series at one while defeating the White Sox (48-84), 5-4.

We witnessed a pitchers’ duel for roughly five innings, and Martín Pérez was right on the money tonight. Pérez dominated through seven frames while only giving up one single hit that came from Bobby Witt Jr. in the top of the fourth that turned into nothing, and struck out five overall while walking no one. He used 85 pitches to get through his outing, and the defense was just as solid behind him to keep the win opportunity intact, though sadly, it ended up not making a difference in the end.

Neither team did anything of note at the plate in the first inning, and all six batters went down in order: Pérez forced a ground out and two pop outs from the Royals, and Michael Lorenzen got Mike Tauchman to fly out before striking out the next two. Pérez didn’t allow a hit for the first three innings, and while Lorenzen was still racking up strikeouts, the South Siders sprinkled seven hits through his five innings, with most of the damage coming in the sixth inning.

The first hit of the game for Chicago came from Colson Montgomery, who mashed his 14th home run of the season off the left field foul pole to put the Sox up, 1-0. Colson has been on a tear since joining the big league squad, and this marks the fourth game in a row that he’s hit a bomb. You absolutely love to see it.

As we know, this game was already bad news, but another tragic aspect of this contest was that Luis Robert Jr. grounded out to short in the second and left the game the next inning with hamstring soreness. Hopefully, this isn’t a major setback for Robert as he’s been rebounding well since the All-Star break and has been integral to the recent team success (if you want to call it that).

Outside of Montgomery’s bomb, Lorenzen was fairly efficient at limiting baserunners through the first five frames, and had struck out six South Siders up until that point. That was not true for the sixth, however, and the White Sox wasted no time putting the pressure on the Royals, as Brooks Baldwin and Tauchman reached base on back-to-back hits and Miguel Vargas walked to load the bases. Kyle Teel ripped an RBI single up the middle to add the first insurance run for the Good Guys, forcing Kansas City to head to the bullpen for righthander John Schreiber.

Lenyn Sosa has been hot over the last few weeks, and he kept it up tonight by driving in the third run of the game on a base hit to left that plated Tauchman. Colson’s at-bat with the bases loaded wasn’t as pretty as when he hit a slam the other day, and he got a bit rattled after a rough strike call before getting jammed on a pitch high and inside, popping out to first. The fourth run for the White Sox was a gift from Schreiber himself, throwing a wild pitch that ended up in the dugout.

It took quite some time for Kansas City to get more than one hit, as Pérez had their offense in a chokehold for all seven of his innings. There were a couple of deep balls hit in his final frame, but both Taylor and Baldwin were able to run down fly balls that were caught right at the wall, preserving the one-hitter.

All the Royals needed was some time, and for Jordan Leasure to come out of the bullpen for hope to come alive. Leasure was able to get two outs, but he allowed two hits and a walk to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate. I’m almost certain that if you looked up “loose cannon” in the dictionary, there would be a photo of Jordan Leasure.

While I was screaming “GET HIM OUT OF THERE!” at my TV, Will Venable was already walking out to the mound to, in fact, get him out of there. Unfortunately for him, Grant Taylor inherited the chaos to face the tying run with the top of the order up to bat, and the first pitch he threw was a line drive hit to right that drove in two runs to cut the lead to two, 4-2. This brought Witt Jr. up to bat with the tying run on first, but Taylor caught him chasing on a high and outside pitch to get out of the inning still with a two-run lead.

Perhaps I spoke a bit too soon with Leasure, because Taylor gave him a run for his money after getting into HOT water in the ninth. The Royals loaded the bases on three singles, and with just one out, Venable decided to head to the arm barn again to see if Tyler Alexander could shut it down. Spoiler: he did not.

The Royals tied the game at four on a two-run base hit on the second pitch, and Alexander only needed seven of them to blow the save and surrender the lead on another single up the middle to make it 5-4, KC. All three runs were charged to Taylor, and he ended up with his fourth loss of the season, ballooning his ERA to 5.58.

With the bases still loaded, the top of the Kansas City order was up with just one out, the White Sox pulled Alexander to see if the third pitcher would be the charm this inning, and thankfully, Steven Wilson was able to get Maikel Garcia to pop out. Witt Jr. ended up striking out to end the inning after Wilson had fallen behind with a 3-0 count.

Now chasing one, the White Sox offense had a final chance to take the game back, but the bats had struggled after their three-run rally in the sixth and had only gotten one other hit since then — a Teel base hit in the eighth for his third of the night. The last hope for the South Siders came down to the bottom of the order; a 1-2-3 inning was how it ended, and they hardly put up a fight. Edgar Quero was pulled off the bench to pinch hit for Taylor, but Carlos Estévez had the game locked down as he got Quero to strike out before forcing a weak ground out from Benintendi and ringing up Curtis Mead to end the game.

The bullpen being bad has been a hot topic all year, but it stings a little more tonight when you remember that Martín Pérez worked hard for a one-hitter through seven, just for the game to blow up in his face. Let’s hope the South Siders can bounce back in the series finale tomorrow night before the Yankees come into town Thursday.