Deep hole too much for Sox to overcome
After a 5-1 loss to the Diamondbacks at U.S. Cellular Field last month, manager Robin Ventura twice said the White Sox "stunk" and he didn't like the energy.
You had a feeling some similar sour sentiments were coming after the Sox lost to the Royals 7-2 Friday night.
All around, it was not a quality effort.
The White Sox had Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie in trouble all night, but they were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position while leaving 11 runners on base.
Left fielder Alejandro De Aza misfired on another catch, and Adam Dunn and Tyler Flowers combined to go 0-for-7 with 5 strikeouts.
Let's face it, this game looked a lot like 2013, but Ventura didn't have any postgame beefs outside of starting pitcher Jose Quintana.
In the first inning, the White Sox' left-hander gave up hits to the first five Royals that came to the plate. When the inning finally ended, the Sox were in a 5-0 hole.
"That first inning, we just couldn't get out of it," Ventura said. "I think that first inning, in the past Q's always been a little slow coming out of the first inning. But they were swinging it. They barreled him up and it happened fast."
The White Sox tried answering back, as leadoff man Adam Eaton and No. 2 hitter Gordon Beckham both reached in the bottom of the first before Guthrie limited the damage to 1 run.
The Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning and were held to 1 run again. They also left two runners on in the fourth and sixth.
Being down 5-0 early looked ominous, but Eaton saw it a different way.
"I think if anything it's better, you want to chip away," Eaton said. "Usually those one-run games are where you kind of get out of your psyche sometimes. You think you can hit a home run and I think when guys go up there (down 5-0), we just need to chip away and get on base and try to start a rally. But it didn't happen tonight."
Quintana (3-7) settled down and allowed 6 runs in 6 innings, but the early damage was too much to overcome.
"I wanted to throw good pitches, but I missed a lot with location," Quintana said. "A little bit high too. The first inning was a terrible inning for me but I came back after that. I kept the ball down and attacked on the first pitch and threw all my pitches."
After failing to complete a three-game sweep over the first-place Tigers on Thursday, were the Sox a little down the next night?
"No, it's another day in the big leagues," Eaton said. "At least for me. Every day is a gift and you need to go out there and play your hardest every day. It doesn't matter who you are playing against. It's another divisional team; it doesn't matter if it's interleague.
"Anytime you go out there, you compete your butt off. You are paid to do that and that's what we need to do."