Royals
Though cooler heads prevailed in this matchup between the Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox, Mother Nature wasn’t quite as cooperative.
Heavy rain forced Friday’s second installment of this tension-filled four-game series to be suspended after eight innings with the teams tied at 2-2.
The game will be resumed Saturday at 2:10 p.m. ET, with the regularly scheduled contest to begin following its conclusion.
Kansas City, which won Thursday’s brawl-marred opener in 13 innings, owned a 2-1 lead that its usually impenetrable bullpen couldn’t hold in the bottom of the seventh.
Chicago’s Adam Eaton golfed a pitch from Chris Young into the gap in left center and hustled his way to a leadoff triple before scoring the tying run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Melky Cabrera.
The run ended a stretch of 28 2/3 scoreless innings thrown by Royals relievers.
The Royals pushed home the game’s initial run when Paulo Orlando doubled off Chicago starter Jose Quintana in the third inning and crossed the plate on Alcides Escobar’s single. The White Sox then capitalized on a Kansas City error in the fourth to pull even.
Escobar’s wild throw to first on Alexei Ramirez’s grounder put a runner on second with none out, and the White Sox pushed Ramirez home on a fly ball and a chopper from Tyler Flowers to knot the score at 1-1.
The Royals took advantage of Quintana’s lone walk of the night, a leadoff free pass to Alex Gordon in the fifth, to move back ahead. After Salvador Perez’s single moved Gordon to third, Orlando laced a base hit to left for a 2-1 lead.
Quintana allowed both Kansas City runs while striking out five over seven solid innings. Danny Duffy surrendered one unearned run on six hits before being removed with one out in the sixth.
