Royals Report: 5 Things About Rebound Victory Over White Sox

4) Danny Duffy Appeared To Run Out Of Gas

The White Sox failed to put a man on base or get a hit off Danny Duffy for 5 1/3 innings on Friday night, then the floodgates opened.

Duffy gave up consecutive rather soft singles to Avasail Garcia, Dionarr Navarro, and Austin Jackson to load the bases before Melky Cabrera launched a bomb over the left field wall to give Chicago a 4-1 lead.

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Really, Duffy couldn’t have suffered through a worse sequence. After Cabrera’s grand slam, Todd Frazier launched a solo shot to put the White Sox up 5-1. The Kauffman Stadium crowd, and KC Royals fans watching pretty much everywhere, were stunned.

Duffy has been gradually stretching out his arm to adjust to a starting role and came into the game with an 80 pitch limit. He seemed to run out of gas after 60.

Of course, that’s what KC Royals fans hope.

The alternative possibility is that White Sox hitters figured out his pitch pattern and gained enough familiarity with his stuff that the third time through the order penalty bit Duffy. Notice that the first two hits came against players in their second at bats against Duffy, but the bombs came from players facing Duffy for the third time.

I suppose we’ll find out which one it was as Duffy makes more starts. He’s been so effective throwing the hard stuff and attacking hitters since his stint in the pen that it’s hard to give up the idea of him pitching that way as a starter.

Next: Eric Hosmer