KANSAS CITY – Remember when you heard the phrase “Watch that first step, it’s a doozy.” For the 2022 White Sox, it’s been true.
Because the first game of series has been a struggle for the club for a lot of the season, with their inability to score runs dooming them to a number of slow starts. The same played out on Tuesday to begin a doubleheader against the Royals in Kansas City.
The White Sox dropped the contest at Kauffman Stadium to the Royals 4-2 as the offense struggled to produce runs over nine innings. For the seventh time since the All-Star break, the clubs scored two or fewer runs in a contest as they slipped to 55-54 on the season.
Lance Lynn allowed four earned runs over six innings of work with five strikeouts and a walk, and that was enough for the Royals pitching staff. Starter Brady Singer surrendered just a solo homer to Josh Harrison in the third inning and the bullpen gave up one run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly to Yoan Moncada.
But a strikeout by Harrison and a groundout by pitcher Yasmani Grandal ended any hope of a comeback.
This continues a trend of White Sox struggles in series openers which has been a problem most of the year but has been troublesome the last month-and-a-half. In their last 12 series, the White Sox have lost nine series openers, with the team only scoring two or fewer runs in seven of the contests.
June 23rd – vs Orioles – Loss – 4-0
June 27th – at Angels – Loss – 4-3
July 1st – at Giants – Win – 1-0
July 4th – vs Twins – Loss – 6-3 (10 Innings)
July 7th – vs Tigers – Loss – 2-1
July 11th – at Guardians – Loss – 8-4
July 14th – at Twins – Win – 12-2
July 22nd – vs Guardians – Loss – 8-2
July 26th – at Rockies – Win – 2-1
July 29th – vs Athletics – Loss – 7-3
August 4th – at Rangers – Loss – 3-2
August 9th – at Royals – Loss – 4-2
Plenty of time exists to change this narrative with nearly two months to go in the season, but like a lot of things for the 2022 White Sox, the question is when that will happen.