White Sox starter Dallas Keuchel was in such an efficient groove Sunday against the Royals that he was aiming for a rare complete game after five innings — he had thrown just 49 pitches and allowed just two hits.
But on the 49th pitch, Keuchel aggravated a chronic back issue snaring Cam Gallagher’s come-backer and it turned into the beginning of the end. Keuchel warmed up in the sixth inning, but couldn’t loosen up his back and took himself out with a two-run lead.
It looked like a tough break for the White Sox — and still could be if Keuchel’s back continues to be a problem. But on this day, the Sox barely blinked. Edwin Encarnacion cranked a three-run homer to deep left field in the seventh inning and the Sox scored three more in the eighth inning to cruise to an 8-2 victory at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
Jose Abreu extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a seventh-inning single that preceded Encarnacion’s big blast as the White Sox (26-15) swept the four-game series with the Royals and won for the 16th time in 20 games to maintain a half-game lead over the Indians (25-15) and move 1 1/2 games ahead of the Twins (25-17) in the AL Central.
White Sox manager Rick Renteria said Keuchel has been managing the back issue all season and Sunday’s episode was nor worse than any previous issues. He and Keuchel are hopeful Keuchel will make his next start Saturday against the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field.
“It pops up every once in a while,” Keuchel said. “Up to that point where it kind of grabbed, I felt really good. The four days leading up to it, after my stomach thing [in his previous start], I don’t know if I had felt better in a long, long time.
“Just kind of weird how these things work out. Hopefully [Monday] I can wake up and maybe it’ll be a little sore, but knowing that I have an off day [Monday] and not pitch until Saturday, hopefully it’ll work out.”
Renteria is neither unconcerned not over-concerned. But the Sox need a healthy and available Keuchel. Sox starters have pitched into the seventh inning only eight times all season — Keuchel (three) and Lucas Giolito (four) have seven of the eight.
For what it’s worth, the Sox’ luck has been running pretty good lately. Last week, they parlayed a dropped fly ball by Max Kepler into a tie-breaking three-run ninth to beat the Twins. On Sunday, they might have gotten a break when a replay challenge by the Royals upheld an out call on Adalberto Mondesi at the plate in the third inning that would ahve tied the game 1-1.
That left the Royals unable to challenge a close play at first in the fourth — on a great stretch by Abreu at first — that likely would have been overturned and again scored the tying run.
The Sox are on that kind of roll. After Keuchel left with a 2-0 lead, Encarnacion hit the three-run homer for a 5-0 lead. After Edward Olivares greeted reliever Steve Cishek with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, Yasmani Grandal, Encarnacion and Eloy Jimenez had RBI hits to give the Sox’ pen more breathing room at 8-2. That’s the kind of timing that carries winning teams a long way.
“Absolutely,” Renteria said. “Right now, you don’t see me jumping for joy — and I’m trying to contain myself that we were able to do that. We needed it. Marsh [Evan Marshall] did a nice job shutting it down and we were able to transition a bit. It helped us immensely. It was a big boost.”
