White Sox fall flat in 10-1 opening loss to Royals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - At first glance, they looked like the White Sox of recent vintage. Flat, overmatched.
This is a new season, and many of the faces from the Sox teams that went 136-188 over the past two years are gone.
It would be foolish to put too much emphasis on the first of 162 games, but the White Sox sure seemed to have that same-old, same-old look Monday in a 10-1 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
Manager Robin Ventura made it a point to stress the emphasis of playing "clean baseball" before Sunday's workout in Kansas City.
In the season opener, the Sox made some defensive mistakes, new starter Jeff Samardzija struggled, the offense disappeared in clutch situations, and the baserunning wasn't good.
Message not received?
"You hope to get the kinks worked out in spring training," designated hitter Adam LaRoche said. "That doesn't always happen. I haven't been around here very long, but from what I've seen and even being in the National League and watching enough games, we've got some guys that can play.
"So it's not going to be sloppy baseball. You will have your games, absolutely, but once we get rolling we'll be fine."
The Royals rolled through October last season and came very close to winning the World Series by doing all of the little things right and pouncing on opponents' mistakes.
Again, it was only the first game of the season, but K.C. picked up right where it left off.
Whether they were blooping in hits off Samardzija and relievers Dan Jennings and Kyle Drabek, hitting home runs (Mike Moustakas off Samardzija, Alex Rios off Drabek) or moving runners up on the bases, the Royals took it to the White Sox.
"That's what type of hitters they are," center fielder Adam Eaton said. "They are guys that are complete hitters. They have some power guys, but guys who will go the other way consistently.
"When you go the other way consistently, sometimes there is little room for error that as a defense you have to be clean and take advantage of those bouncers."
Kansas City had 13 hits, drew 5 walks and was 5-for-15 with runners in scoring position. The Sox were limited to 5 hits, drew 2 walks and were 0-for-1 with RISP.
A key moment came in the second inning. After Avisail Garcia was hit by a pitch and Conor Gillaspie doubled with two outs, advancing Garcia to third base, Tyler Flowers looked completely overmatched while striking out against Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura.
"We had some opportunities early and didn't capitalize on any of them," Robin Ventura said. "You've got to get better at that. I'm not going to say this is a whole season, but you want to get off to a good start and we didn't. You just come back on Wednesday and get back after them."
The White Sox' run came in the seventh inning, when Jose Abreu hit a 418-foot home run to left-center off Ventura. To be fair, Ventura was very good before leaving with a right-thumb cramp while pitching to LaRoche following Abreu's homer.
But the simple fact is the Sox have to be better in every phase of the game.
"It's not that we're not trying," Eaton said. "We're going out there giving it our best effort. Samardzija went out and gave a heck of an effort, but our bats were a little quiet and there were a few defensive miscues that a team like Kansas City was going to take advantage of."