KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ On a Tuesday last December, inside a posh hotel in National Harbor, Md., the Royals and Boston Red Sox crafted a pair of trades that would shape their 2017 seasons.
In a suite on the upper floors, the Royals brain trust hammered out the details on a deal that would send closer Wade Davis to the Chicago Cubs for Jorge Soler, a decision that would trim salary and flip a short-term asset for a long-term piece. Tucked in his own corner of the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski planned something even more audacious: A blockbuster deal to acquire White Sox ace Chris Sale.
As news of the Sale trade shook up baseball's Winter Meetings, spreading across the property, Royals manager Ned Yost caught wind of the deal. The development delighted him. After years of battling Sale in the American League Central, Yost let out a brief sigh of relief.
"I was glad we didn't have to see him four or five times a year," he said.
Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium put that feeling on full display. In an 8-3 loss to the Red Sox, the Royals managed just one run in eight innings before rookie Jorge Bonifacio drove a two-run blast to deep left-center in the ninth. For 8 1/3 innings, Sale, the cantilevered left-hander, showed why he is a five-time All-Star and Cy Young frontrunner. He yielded just four hits. He struck out 10. His ERA sat at 2.85 after he picked up his ninth victory, handing the Royals their second loss in 10 games.
At one point, Sale retired 19 straight before stumbling in the ninth. Before that, the lone piece of damage came courtesy of Mike Moustakas, who drilled his 100th career homer to right field in the bottom of the second. The Royals (34-36) were rendered powerless until Whit Merrifield drew a walk and Bonifacio clubbed his 10th homer in the ninth.
As Sale breezed, his counterpart, Royals left-hander Matt Strahm, was tripped up in the fourth inning. In his second start since joining the rotation, Strahm was on a pitch count of close to 85 pitches. He did not make it to that number. He opened the fourth by allowing four consecutive hits and three runs. He was pulled in favor of reliever Scott Alexander with nobody out and the Red Sox leading 4-1.
Alexander allowed one inherited runner to score. Strahm was knocked around as his fastball sat at 90 mph and his change-up stayed up in the strike zone.
Kansas City can still salvage the series on Wednesday when Ian Kennedy starts against lefty Drew Pomeranz in a 1:15 p.m. matchup. Pomeranz, a 28-year-old left-hander with a 4.19 ERA, will offer a difficult test. Yet it will pale in comparison to the challenge of beating Sale.
As he took the mound at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday, Sale led the American League in strikeouts (136), innings (99) and FIP (1.77), an advanced metric that resembles ERA and judges pitchers independent of their defense. As he maneuvered through the Royals' lineup, he unleashed a 95 mph fastball, a disappearing change-up and a slider that confounds left-handed hitters.
The Royals, of course, have a history of breaking through against Sale. In a 7-5 loss to the White Sox last June, first baseman Eric Hosmer stroked two homers while the Royals put up five runs in six innings against Sale. In addition to Hosmer, catcher Salvador Perez, Moustakas and shortstop Alcides Escobar had all piled up decent track records in the last two seasons. Yet on Tuesday night, Sale was in vintage form.
Moustakas clubbed a 440-homer to right field in the second, his 19th of the year. Escobar led off the third with his 1,000th hit in a Royals uniform. And that was basically it ... until the ninth.
