Guillen, Butler Power Royals Past White Sox

Don’t look now, but the Royals just won their second series in a row, sneaking past the White Sox 7-6 last night behind a (mostly) strong Zack Greinke.  Jose Guillen also had his ups and downs in big moments on a day when he had started ranting about the Royals lack of fundamentals.  Then he let a routine flyball drop in front of him.  Vintage Guillen.

Butler struck first against Jake Peavy, drilling a 422 foot bomb to left center. He finally breaks the tie with Alberto Callaspo for second-most homers on the team. Hopefully he turns on the power in July.

Greinke was mostly unhittable until an Omar Vizquel drive to right got past Guillen and turned into a triple. Alex Rios drove him in with a single past a drawn in infield, but up until the eighth inning, Greinke cruised, getting 12 ground ball outs over eight innings. He only struck out three, but walked none. His only real trouble came in the eighth when the White Sox turned up the aggression, loading the bases with three singles on six pitches. After a Juan Pierre single (on the second pitch of the at-bat) scored one, Brent Lillibridge tripled on a bad pitch and scored on a ground out to make it 7-6.

Chicago scored five runs off last year’s Cy Young winner on 11 pitches.

Thankfully, it wasn’t enough, as Jose Guillen had homered on a no-doubt blast to the seating area near the Hall of Fame to make it 7-1 at the time, redeeming his earlier flyball mistakes. Guillen also hustled to the wall to make a catch on a Mark Kotsay drive to get the first out of the ninth inning. It was all or nothing for Jose.

Stars of the Game
Billy Butler, 2-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB
Jose Guillen, 2-5, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Alberto Callaspo, RBI double, run scored
Chris Getz, 2-4, 2 SB

The Royals now go on a long road trip that will last until after the All-Star break, starting tomorrow night against Anaheim.

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