Kansas City Royals Shut Down By John Danks Yet Again

The Kansas City Royals received an excellent outing from Edinson Volquez. Unfortunately, they ran into their nemesis in John Danks, who once again proved to have the Royals number in a 2-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Given Danks history against the Royals, and Volquez’ performance thus far, it was expected that the second game of the doubleheader would be a pitchers duel, which turned out to be the case. In fact, it seemed likely that whichever pitcher blinked first could end up losing the contest.

Unfortunately for the Royals, it turned out to be Volquez who stumbled. With two outs in the second, Avisail Garcia tripled to right center. Tyler Flowers followed with  line drive over a leaping Dusty Coleman at third for an RBI single, giving the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

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While Volquez settled in from that point, the Kansas City Royals were unable to get anything together against John Danks. Despite their baserunners, the Royals were unable to get anyone past second against the crafty lefty. Considering his struggles over the course of the season, it was truly frustrating to watch.

Chicago added another run in the sixth. Melky Cabrera doubled, moved to third on a line out to deep center that Lorenzo Cain kept from falling in for extra bases, and scored on a wild pitch to give the White Sox a 2-0 lead.

The White Sox threatened again in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with one out. However, Franklin Morales was able to get out of the jam, striking out Cabrera and getting Jose Abreu to ground out to end the threat.

As it turned out, that inability to take advantage of the golden opportunity to add to the lead did not come back to bite the White Sox. The Chicago bullpen shut down the Royals, as they split the double header with a 2-0 victory. Volquez took the tough loss, allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks, striking out three in his 6.1 innings of work.

Alcides Escobar was 1-2 with two walks in the loss.

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