Sosa gets nod at shortstop in White Sox's loss to Royals
In his return to the lineup Tuesday night in Game 2 of a doubleheader at Kansas City, Lenyn Sosa went 2-for-4 and had a solo home in the White Sox's 3-2 win over the Royals.
Not that they have much choice, but that was good enough for the Sox.
"The better he does, the more he plays," manager Tony La Russa told reporters. "There's an opportunity here. Anyone who hits a home run and gets a hit injects energy to our club, we're looking for runs.
"He gets called up and produces. That's more impressive."
With all-star Tim Anderson due to have surgery on his left middle finger Thursday and miss six weeks, the White Sox's infield is in rough shape.
Danny Mendick was effective playing shortstop, second base and third, but he injured his knee on June 22 and is out for the season.
Leury Garcia is still around, but the veteran infielder is having an abysmal year at the plate, hitting .211/.237/.274 with 3 home runs and 18 RBI in 79 games.
Until Anderson returns, look for Sosa to get the bulk of the playing time at short.
The 22-year-old Sosa, who has spent most of the season at Class AA Birmingham and AAA Charlotte, played shortstop Wednesday night in the Sox's 8-3 loss to Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium.
Unlike Tuesday, he struggled at the plate and was 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts.
Sosa did show off his defensive skills and was involved in 3 double plays over the first four innings.
Johnny Cueto started for the White Sox and the 36-year-old righty got out of some early trouble thanks to the defense being able to turn two.
Trailing 1-0 in the sixth inning, the Sox took the lead when Royals second baseman Michael Massey booted Gavin Sheets' double-play grounder, allowing 2 runs to score.
Josh Harrison followed with an RBI single to put the White Sox up 3-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, Kansas City took advantage of an error by third baseman Yoan Moncada and rallied to tie the game at 3.
MJ Melendez's home run off new Sox reliever Jake Diekman in the seventh inning put the Royals in front for good.
Delivering his 13th quality start in 15 trips to the mound this season, Cueto pitched 6 innings and gave up 3 runs (2 earned) on 9 hits and 1 walk.
The Sox (56-55) are 7-7 against the Royals (46-66) this season.