KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The scoring drought continued Saturday for the Chicago White Sox, who were shut out for the second straight game in a 2-0 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The Sox were held to four hits in front of a crowd of 16,214. They haven’t scored since the seventh inning of Thursday’s series opener.
“It’s fair to say you have to give (Royals pitchers) credit, they have pitched really really well the last two games, really all three games,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “But offensively you have to find a way to make an adjustment, move some balls forward.
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“We saw a ton of strikes today from (Royals starter Michael) Wacha. We weren’t really able to force him out of the zone or do anything with his stuff today. We have to find ways here.”
Strong pitching — for both teams — has been the theme so far this series. So has the final score.
The Sox won the opener 2-0 on Thursday behind 5 2/3 scoreless innings from starter Anthony Kay.
Kris Bubic was in complete control Friday, allowing two hits and striking out 11 over seven innings in a 2-0 Royals win. The Sox had just two hits in that game, a Lenyn Sosa double in the fifth and a Derek Hill single in the sixth.
Sosa had one of the four Sox hits Saturday, a double in the seventh inning. Andrew Benintendi doubled in the first, while Reese McGuire and Tanner Murray singled in the third and fifth innings, respectively. Murray’s single was his first career major-league hit.
Wacha scattered the four hits over eight innings in a game that began after a 25-minute rain delay. The right-hander struck out seven and walked one.
“I think it’s just one of those stretches,” Benintendi said. “It’s early, you look up at the board and see a bunch of people hitting in the .100s so it’s maybe a little bit of panic there for a lot of us. But it’s a long season. The sample size is still so small that it takes a bloop here, a bloop there and all of a sudden you get going.”
The Royals also had only four hits. But the first came on the first pitch of the bottom of the first — a home run by Maikel Garcia. Sox starter Erick Fedde settled in after the long ball, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts and one walk in five innings.
“Stuff’s probably the worst it’s been all year, but the sweeper was great today, and I just kind of relied on it,” Fedde said. “I thought Reese did a good job of recognizing that and just kept leaning on that and forced them to make the adjustment. Got through the five when the stuff wasn’t the best.”
The Royals did just enough offensively, while the Sox (5-10) have lost five of six.
“As tough as it has been offensively, these guys remain positive,” Venable said. “The vibe is good. A lot of times when you are not getting hits, it feels like you have no energy. That hasn’t been the case for us. So, I think the guys are in a good frame of mind. We just have to turn some fastballs around, put some balls in play.”