The White Sox spent one burst turning a 4-0 hole into a tie, then watched the game slip away for good in the seventh.
Kansas City broke through against Hagen Smith on Maikel Garcia’s two-out RBI double, and that run stood as the difference in a 5-4 Royals win. Smith took the loss after Garcia’s hit scored the fifth and final Royals run, but the night had already been shaped by a White Sox offense that went quiet after its third-inning rally.
The inning that changed everything started with the Royals opening a 4-0 lead. Bryan Hudson’s opener stint went sideways fast, as he retired only one of the five batters he faced and allowed three singles before Vinnie Pasquantino added a double that pushed the margin to 3-0.
Erick Fedde then came in after laboring through a first inning in which he took a hot shot off his calf, and the Royals picked up another run when Classy Michael Massey hit a grounder to the left side. Colson Montgomery was charged with the error on the play, though the ball glanced off Munetaka Murakami’s mitt while he tried to hold the bag, allowing Pasquantino to score from second on what ended up as an unearned run.
Then the White Sox answered in a hurry.
Chase Meidroth opened the third with a bunt single, Colson Montgomery struck out after the club used its second challenge on the pitch, and Braden Montgomery followed with a single to right. Sam Antonacci was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Kyle Teel cashed in with a single to left that scored Meidroth and Braden Montgomery. Miguel Vargas kept it going with a single behind Bobby Witt Jr. to cut the deficit to 4-3, and Teel came home on Munetaka Murakami’s double into the right-field corner to tie it.
That set up the inning that should have given Chicago its first lead. With the bases loaded and a 3-0 count against Seth Lugo, Meidroth had a golden chance to flip the game.
Lugo fought back with a sinker up and in for strike one, then came even further inside with another sinker. Meidroth moved, then swung and popped out, leaving the bases loaded with the score still tied at 4.
Chicago had another chance to break through in the fourth after loading the bases again on two singles and a walk, but Vargas grounded into a double play. After that, the offense disappeared. The Sox managed only two hits over the final five innings: Meidroth’s single in the sixth, which he tried to stretch into a double, and Braden Montgomery’s two-out single in the ninth.
Smith’s seventh-inning trouble came after the White Sox had already used four pitchers, with Hudson’s rough opening and an inefficient Fedde setting the tone. Sean Newcomb’s return was a bright spot, and the bullpen allowed just one run over 7⅔ innings, or five innings by the real relievers.
But Smith could not escape the seventh after Carter Jensen led off with a hard single and Pasquantino had already spoiled a lefty-lefty look against Bryan Hudson earlier in the game. Garcia’s double brought home the decisive run.
There were also some individual notes that stood out. Braden Montgomery finished 3-for-4 from the bottom of the order, while Colson Montgomery struck out three more times to tie the White Sox single-season record of 222, previously held by Adam Dunn. He also made a sharp defensive play in the seventh on a Witt grounder, diving to stop the ball and pushing it to Meidroth on the ground for the force at second.
For a few innings, the White Sox looked like they had enough firepower to take control. Instead, the big swing came, the bases got left loaded, and the rest of the night slowly ran out of steam.
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