Strong outing by starter Davis Martin wasted as the Chicago White Sox get swept by the Kansas City Royals

Chicago Tribune

21 hours ago

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chicago White Sox entered Sunday having lost a franchise-record 13 straight games at Kauffman Stadium.
For a while, it looked like the streak would end in historic fashion as Davis Martin carried a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals into the sixth inning.
The Sox lost the no-hitter with one out in the sixth. The Royals tied the score in the seventh, went ahead in the eighth and held on to defeat the Sox 6-2 in front of 15,114.
The Sox were swept in the three-game series. At 44-80, they are a season-high 36 games under .500.
An excellent outing by Martin went to waste. The right-hander allowed one hit, struck out four and walked three in six scoreless innings.
'(Catcher Edgar Quero) and I were on the same page from the get-go,' Martin said. 'Just being able to throw multiple pitches for strikes, we were throwing all five or six pitches to both sides. Just giving a different look, giving them something else to think about.
'Just felt like we were really in control for a lot of it.'
The one hit came on a bloop double near the left-field line by Mike Yastrzemski.
'Honestly, I talk to God a lot during my outings, I would say, 'It's all you,'' Martin said. 'I'm not going to go out and force results. 'You have a plan for me, whatever that plan is good, bad or indifferent.'
'Literally after the second inning I was like, 'I have a no-hitter.' I was like, 'it's all yours God. If it's a no-hitter, great. It's all you. If not, it's still all you.' It frees me up to go out there and just be myself.'
Martin exited after throwing 87 pitches.
'That was about as good as it gets,' manager Will Venable said. 'He was in the zone the whole day. When he didn't get ahead with the first pitch, he was right back in the count. Got soft contact. Everything was working for him, really good cutter, really good changeup. He's aggressive and attacks the zone. Great job by Martin.'
Quero described Martin's outing as 'amazing.'
Venable said there was a thought to having Martin return for the seventh.
'Pitch-count wise you feel like you have a little something to work with there, but just with the heat (94 degrees at first pitch) and where he was at, it was a good spot to turn the page and give (reliever Steven) Wilson a shot,' Venable said.
Martin wanted to come out for the seventh, but said, 'It was a good spot. Honestly, the heat, I was pretty tired. Where the pitch count is this point of the year, Will told us what we were doing and I loved it. It was a great decision and you trust those guys coming in behind you.'
The Sox had a 2-0 lead, with Lenyn Sosa hitting a solo home run in the first and Quero collecting an RBI on a single in the sixth.
The Royals staged a pair of two-out rallies during their comeback.
Adam Frazier went the other way for a two-out double against Wilson in the seventh. Jonathan India followed with a game-tying two-run home run.
'Got Frazier there 0-2, did a good job getting on top of that fastball,' Venable said. 'From that point on, it just seemed like we couldn't get the outs, didn't quite make pitches we needed to and they poured it on after that.'
The Sox potentially had a chance to regain the lead in the eighth, but Chase Meidroth appeared to briefly slow down near second on a two-out double by Brooks Baldwin and had to be held up at third. They ended up not scoring.
'Not sure if he scores there, but that's really besides the point,' Venable said. 'In that situation, process-wise, we have to be in tune with the situation.'
The Royals made the most of their two-out chances in the eighth, scoring four runs.
Maikel Garcia drove in Bobby Witt Jr. with a single against reliever Grant Taylor to give the Royals a 3-2 lead. Garcia scored on a long single by Salvador Perez. Frazier greeted reliever Jordan Leasure with a two-run home run, making it 6-2.
The Sox were retired in order in the ninth. They finished with nine hits, but went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base.
'It just seems similar to the other games where we just can't string it together,' Venable said. 'We have one good thing happen and then two outs, a couple good things happen and then a mistake on the bases, whatever it might be. We just have to be better and try to string some things together.'
The Sox have lost four straight and 11 of their last 13.
Venable wants to keep the message simple: 'Get on the fastball, run hard and see what happens.'