KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Lorenzo Cain‘s night was not going the way he wanted. He was hitless in his first six at-bats with three strikeouts. It all ended with his fifth career walk-off hit.
Cain’s two-out single in the 14th inning scored Christian Colon from second base and the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 on Wednesday.
“I had been ready to go home for a while,” Cain said. “I was happy to get the hit. It was definitely a rough game up to that point. I came through for the boys. It’s a very good feeling.”
Colon opened the inning with a single and Paulo Orlando sacrificed him to second. Cain laced a single to center to score Colon, ending the 4-hour, 34-minute game, the longest by the Royals this season.
Dillon Gee (4-5), the eighth Kansas City pitcher, struck out three in two perfect innings to pick up the victory. Matt Albers (2-5) was charged with the loss.
“What a crazy game that was,” Gee said. “I was in the dugout the whole game.”
But when Chien-Ming Wang came in, the Royals were out of available bullpen arms. That’s when pitching coach Dave Eiland approached Gee and told him to put on his spikes and go to the bullpen. Gee was penciled in to start Saturday, but that is doubtful after this emergency appearance.
Jarrod Dyson led off the 13th inning with a triple, but the Royals failed to get him home. Dan Jennings struck out the next three batters: Drew Butera, Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar.
“I’m sure everybody was thinking the game was over at that point,” Cain said after Dyson’s triple.
But it took another inning. Fourteen pitchers combined to throw 424 pitches. There were 25 hits and 25 runners stranded.
“After the triple, it seemed like Jennings reached back and got a little something extra,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “Hopefully we could have gotten a little momentum out of that.”
Tim Anderson delivered a run-producing single with two outs in the 11th to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead, but closer David Robertson failed to hold it.
Anderson, who had struck out four times, hit a soft liner over the head of first baseman Eric Hosmer to score Todd Frazier, who led off the inning with a single off Wang.
Robertson, who has blown saves in the first two games of the series, walked Hosmer to lead off the bottom of the 11th. Dyson sacrificed him to second and Salvador Perez‘s double scored Hosmer.
White Sox left-hander Jose Quintana limited the Royals to four hits and one run over 7 1-3 innings.
“It was a tough game,” Quintana said. “That’s one of the games you try to give fight all the game. The weather was bad (102 heat index for the first pitch). We just try to get quick outs, try to throw a good quality pitch. It’s bad when you try everything and you lose.”
He was pulled after Orlando’s double in the eighth inning. Nate Jones replaced him and on his first pitch yielded a run-producing double to Cheslor Cuthbert. It was Jones’ seventh blown save of the season.
Royals right-hander Ian Kennedy, who has a 0.93 ERA in his past three starts, held the White Sox to one run and six hits over 6 1-3 innings. Kennedy is 0-3 with five no-decisions since a June 26 victory over Houston.
The Royals have scored a total of nine runs while Kennedy was on the mound in his past eight starts.
J.D. Shuck, who hit .083 over his previous eight games, homered on a 2-0 pitch in the third, the only run Kennedy allowed. That was the White Sox only extra-base hit along with 12 singles.
Orlando had two outfield assists. He threw out Omar Narvaez at the plate in the seventh when he attempted to score from second on
Shuck’s single to center. In the ninth, pinch-runner Carlos Sanchez tried to take second on Tyler Saladino‘s fly out to deep right-center, but Orlando threw him out.
QUICK EJECTION
White Sox pitching Don Cooper was ejected by plate umpire Pat Hoberg five pitches into the bottom of the first inning for arguing balls and strikes.
HAWK ABSENT
Ken Harrelson, who is in his 32nd season in the White Sox television booth, will miss all six games of this Kansas City and Miami road trip due to illness.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: INF Brett Lawrie (strained left hamstring) has resumed swinging a bat. “He looks much better from where he was,” Ventura said. “It’s another step in the right direction for him, but, we don’t know exactly how that’s going to go.”
Royals: LHP Mike Minor, who has not pitched in the majors since Sept. 23, 2014, with the Braves and had surgery in 2015 to repair a torn labrum, is rehabbing with Triple-A Omaha. He likely will not rejoin the Royals until September, when the hope is could make some starts.
UP NEXT
White Sox: RHP Miguel Gonzalez is 0-1 with a 3.65 ERA in two starts this season against the Royals.
Royals: LHP Danny Duffy is 4-0 with a 3.67 ERA in nine home starts this season.
Photo credit – Orlin Wagner / Associated Press
