Peavy let up 3 ER through 6.2 IP. Credit: Getty Images
This game was indeed a pitchers duel, despite the final box score not completely pointing to that. Through five innings, the game was tied at 1 a piece, before the Sox took the lead in the bottom of the 6th, only to see the Royals come right back in the top of the 7th and then add to their lead in the 8th. Jake Peavy did throw the ball well, just not his best. And when that’s the case, a quality start is an encouraging result.
The Sox bullpen has been phenomenal of late … it just can’t the way every evening. And heck, it’s not like it was all that bad. It just came down to Leyson Septimo’s walk and Billy Butler’s 2-run home run that padded Kansas City’s lead.
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In this one you really just have to tip your cap to the Royals, particularly Bruce Chen to his impressive performance and to their hitters, who were able to come up clutch more times than the Sox.
The south siders did have some opportunities, but squandered all of them outside of Adam Dunn’s RBI single in the bottom of the 6th inning. The Sox only had that one “clutch” hit in this ball game, and the Royals beat that total in the 7th inning alone when they quickly tied it up and jumped out in front. Hawk Harrelson likes to say “this will end up being a big spot in the ball game” when talking in the present about a given situation in which the Sox either need a stop or a score. Tonight, the Royals were just better at those times. Not really much to it besides that.
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Bruce “Cy” Chen was phenomenal, taking his team into the 7th inning and only letting up 2 earned runs, especially considering he surrendered a leadoff home run in the 1st inning to Gordon Beckham … he sure was able to settle down. I know his statistics say that we should pound him all over the park, but he’s had our number more times than not in recent history and certainly does know how to pitch effectively.
This White Sox team has been resilient though, and they’ll need to be just that tomorrow night. They go for the series win as Jeremy Guthrie takes on Jose Quintana, who has had ample rest since his last start. I expect him to come out, throw strikes, and work fast. If he’s hitting his spots and changing speeds, he’s done his parts. With a pitcher like “Q,” sometimes you just have to leave the rest up to the baseball gods.
Hopefully Alejandro De Aza & Kevin Youkilis come back for Wednesday’s game and the likes of Rios, Dunn, and Pierzynski continue to swing hot bats. That’ll make it a lot easier on our rookie south paw.
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GSB!’s very own Luke Stanczyk and Zach Gropper will be in attendance, so look out for us on television as we’ll be reporting on the game from “The Cell” in the series’ decisive game.