CHICAGO _ In a span of 13 minutes at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday night, the Royals went from clinging to a one-run lead over the White Sox in the seventh inning to trailing by six in what became a 9-3 loss.
Royals reliever Jason Adam _ who entered the game for Tim Hill after the first batters of the inning reached on a single and an error by Alcides Escobar _ threw a first-pitch fastball to White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu that Abreu crushed for a three-run homer to give the White Sox a 5-3 lead.
Then, after striking out Matt Davidson, Adam sandwiched a walk between singles from Leury Garcia and Tim Anderson. The latter scored Garcia, who had stolen second base when Omar Narvaez was batting. Anderson scored when Nicky Delmonico shot a three-run homer of his own to right field.
Jersey pulled over his mouth, Adam retreated to the Royals' dugout. He had allowed a homer for the eighth and ninth times this season. For the second time in just over two weeks, he had a blown a lead in this ballpark.
This time, his efforts wiped out a two-run, 51/3-inning performance from Jakob Junis, who issued three walks and struck out five batters, and a three-run third inning from the Royals offense.
The Royals fell to 37-85 on the season.
