Sox’ offense, not bullpen, to blame for this loss
You can pin the White Sox’ 9-1 loss to the Royals on the bullpen if you want.
Matt Thornton, Nate Jones and Addison Reed did a poor job of pitching, and they quickly combined to torch a 1-0 lead Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field.
It was an interesting game before Thornton replaced starter Philip Humber with two outs in the seventh inning, but it quickly became an ugly mess.
Reed, in particular, took a beating.
The rookie right-hander had a streak of 13 straight scoreless appearances to start the season, but Reed’s ERA went from 0.00 to 5.23 after he allowed 6 earned runs on 2 hits and 3 walks while retiring only one hitter.
Reed also hit Billy Butler with the bases loaded.
“We let it get away from us,” manager Robin Ventura said.
Again, blame the bullpen.
I’ll go the other way and put the loss on the offense.
The White Sox appeared to catch a huge break when Kansas City starter Danny Duffy, an impressive young left-hander, left the game with one on and two outs in the first inning.
Duffy suffered an undisclosed injury, and right-hander Luis Mendoza came out of the Royals’ bullpen to pitch.
Considering the Sox came in batting .199 against left-handed pitchers — the lowest average in the major leagues — and considering Mendoza came into the game with a 5.56 ERA, it looked like the White Sox caught a huge break.
Instead, Mendoza allowed just 1 run over 5 innings as the Sox’ offense pulled another vanishing act.
On Saturday, K.C. starter Luke Hochevar (9.00 ERA) pitched 7 shutout innings and the White Sox fell 5-0. The Sox won Friday’s series opener 5-0 and combined to score 13 runs while winning at Cleveland last Tuesday and Wednesday.
But as Sunday’s effort showed again, scoring runs is likely to be a frequent problem.
“We had a pretty good road trip, especially in Cleveland,” Paul Konerko said. “Sometimes you have that off day (Thursday) and kind of lose a feel. Sometimes it happens as a player, sometimes it happens as a team.
“(Friday) night, we scored some runs, but a couple of guys did the damage. It wasn’t like everybody.
“We’ve just got to get back to it. There’s no simple answer. It’s just come and continue to work and to grind, grind it out. Part of that is to grind it out. It’s a different answer for everybody.”
Konerko has been hitting all season, as have Adam Dunn, Alex Rios and A.J. Pierzynski.
On Sunday, Brent Lillibridge (.176), Gordon Beckham (.208), Dayan Viciedo (.196), Tyler Flowers (.167) and Eduardo Escobar (.176) all were in the lineup.
No wonder Mendoza made it look so easy.
“Picking it up is a tough thing when you talk about hitting because the harder you try, the more intensity you have, it doesn’t just correlate with good things,” Konerko said.
“We’ve got young players who are seeing pitchers for the first time, seeing stadiums for the first time. There’s a lot that goes into it. You look around the league there are all-star perennial guys who are hitting .200 or .180.
“So if it’s possible for those guys to do it, it’s possible for anybody to do it. We’ve all been there. It’s just a matter of realizing it’s a long season. There’s no one doing anything right now that it can’t go one way or another.”
sgregor@dailyherald.com