NewsRoyals can't stop Chicago's end run
After Meche's solid start, Olivo's big blast, Sox win in ninth
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
05/30/09 10:57 PM ET
KANSAS CITY -- A tense, tight game kept a sellout crowd of 37,894 captivated to the end on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium. But after the Chicago White Sox had snapped a tie in the ninth inning to win, 5-3, Royals manager Trey Hillman could draw just one conclusion."We should've won the game, that's the bottom line," Hillman said.
Maybe so. The Royals could use a victory after three straight defeats and 15 losses in their last 20 games. That unpleasant stretch has followed a six-game winning streak.
"The effort's there, the guys' desire to win is there. It's just we're not getting it done somehow," the Royals' Willie Bloomquist said. "We've just got to keep grinding away and this thing will snap for our benefit."
Then Bloomquist had another thought.
"This one stings a little bit," he said.
It did because Gil Meche, in a duel with White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle, had pitched very well for seven innings. Miguel Olivo had dramatically tied the score, 3-3, with a home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. And the full house was roaring in anticipation of a victory.
But things unraveled in the ninth inning.
Royals reliever Juan Cruz gave up a one-out single to Chris Getz and walked Josh Fields. Scott Podsednik singled to right, scoring Getz, but in an ensuing rundown was out at second base -- tagged by alert left fielder David DeJesus.
"I saw no one covering second base. And I looked at Mitch [Maier] and said, 'All right, I'm going over there,' " DeJesus said. "I think that was my first tag-out. I really didn't know how to tag the guy. I just put my foot in the baseline and just tagged him."
After that fortuitous 9-3-6-3-7 oddity, however, Alexei Ramirez hit a soft liner that second baseman Alberto Callaspo couldn't handle and it went for a run-scoring single. The White Sox were ahead by 5-3 and closer Bobby Jenks stopped the Royals in the ninth.
On a pleasant 87-degree spring evening, nostalgia was in the air as the teams saluted Negro Leagues baseball by wearing uniforms of the 1924 Kansas City Monarchs and the 1926 Chicago American Giants.
Art "Superman" Pennington, a former American Giants player, tossed out the ceremonial first pitch to the Royals' Coco Crisp. Then Meche and Buehrle got down to an old-fashioned pitching duel.
The big crowd, drawn by a Monarchs jersey giveaway, was treated to three rousing triples in the first four innings. All three, by Bloomquist, Maier and Chicago's Jermaine Dye, figured in the scoring as the Royals edged ahead, 2-1.
Maier, tracking Dye's blast to the wall in center field, nearly caught the ball.
"I got there. When I went up for it, I just missed it. It's a play I've made a hundred times. I got there and I jumped up for it, and I timed it right and everything, I just didn't come down with it," Maier said.
Dye scored on Jim Thome's sacrifice fly. The only other run off Meche came in the seventh on two singles and another sac fly. Meche left after seven innings and 103 pitches with the score 2-2.
Meche, after several rough outings, made an adjustment and rediscovered his command of pitches.
"It was just a matter of me moving from the third-base side of the rubber to the first base just to try to make it better on clearing my hips and see if I could get better location. Everything was much better, I just couldn't hold them down," Meche said.
Well, he held them to just two runs on five hits and notched seven strikeouts.
Meche was relieved by left-hander John Bale for the eighth. And Bale quickly was in bases-loaded trouble. The White Sox eighth began with Podsednik and Ramirez each beating out bunts fielded by Bale.
"We should've had outs on both of them," Hillman said. "The first one, John couldn't get the ball out of his glove. ... Second one, Billy [Butler] got in the way."
Butler, moving in for Ramirez's bunt, saw Bale grab the ball and then retreated to cover first base. Callaspo already was there waiting for the ball but Butler intercepted Bale's flip and Ramirez was safe.
"When I saw John could get to the ball, I should've got out of the way," Butler said. "Alberto's there, so I've got to get out of the way and let him have the bag. That stuff can't happen."
But it did and Bale walked Dye to load the bases with no outs. Thome's cue shot off the end of the bat was fielded by the busy Bale, who could do nothing but touch first base for the out as Podsednik scored. After an intentional walk to Paul Konerko, though, A.J. Pierzynski obligingly rapped into a double play.
And on Buehrle's first pitch of the bottom half, Olivo smashed a home run 413 feet over the left-field wall. Olivo was in the game only because starting catcher John Buck left in the third inning with back spasms.
"I'm aggressive all the time. Right now I'm not hitting well, but I just made good contact with that ball," Olivo said.
Buehrle went 7 1/3 innings and left with the score 3-3, missing a chance to notch his 20th career victory over the Royals (he's 19-8). But he was as tough as his 6-1 record this year indicated.
"Mark Buehrle's Mark Buehrle. He was good again," Hillman said. "But Mark Buehrle didn't beat us today. We beat ourselves today."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
