Former White Sox star Oswaldo “Ozzie” Guillén is an authoritative voice when it comes to baseball on the South Side of Chicago. The last time the White Sox won a World Series ring was in 2005, and it was under the command of Venezuelan-born Guillén.
That is why people insist on listening to him, especially in lean times for the White Sox. On Sunday, they lost 4-1 to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium. It was the 14th time in 2024 that the White Sox have been swept.
The loss to the Royals the day before sent Ozzie Guillen over the edge. He openly criticized White Sox players and manager Pedro Grifol during NBC Sports’ White Sox Postgame Live.
Among his words, he left a sentence reminding that in baseball, the fan deserves to be treated with respect when he said:
“Forget the wins, the White Sox should want to see a little better baseball”.
Later, the reigning Venezuelan Professional Baseball League champion with the Tiburones de la Guaira (La Guaira Sharks) was ruthless when talking about players and managers when he expressed:
“I would fire them all.”
If you are a Chicago White Sox fan, or even if you’re not, but you just like good baseball, you probably think like Ozzie Guillen. The level of play shown by the White Sox is simply below par for a tournament called the Major Leagues.
White Sox Saturday Game Recap
Seth Lugo retired 14 consecutive batters for his first career complete game and the Kansas City Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1 on Sunday to complete a series sweep.
Lugo (12-4) allowed one run and struck out six batters on 103 pitches. He allowed an infield hit to Tommy Pham to open the game before retiring the next 14 batters.
“The efficiency, the pitching, everything was spectacular,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I’m glad he not only got the complete game, but the win.”
Lugo said he has been trying to complete a game for a long time in his career.
“I always said I wanted to play every inning of the game,” he said. “I was finally able to do that today.”
Nicky Lopez was hit by a pitch in the top of the sixth and scored on Pham’s single, breaking a scoreless tie. It was the White Sox’ first run off Royals starters in the series after 19 scoreless innings.
In the eighth inning, Hunter Renfroe’s homer drove in Bobby Witt Jr. to break a 1-1 tie as the Royals connected for five hits and scored three runs against reliever John Brebbia (0-5).
“I was looking for something in the strike zone, something I could knock out of the park,” Renfroe said. “I just tried to put it in the zone as best I could. He threw a slider over the top, I tried to take it to me and connect to right field.”
“We were taking advantage of what came our way,” Quatraro said. “We connected on the ball on the other side of the infield. There were hits with two outs.”
Witt connected for three hits in the three-game series, and the Royals completed their sixth consecutive sweep.
“He’s not a star, he’s a superstar,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s worth paying the ticket. He’s a special kid.”
In the top of the seventh inning, Kansas City tied the score on Maikel García’s single to the infield off Justin Anderson, followed by another hit by Dairon Blanco, allowing García to advance to the third base. Kyle Isbel then laid down a bunt to send Garcia to the plate to tie the game.
Chicago’s relievers staff leads the majors with a combined 24 blown save opportunities and 33 losses.
Kansas City manager said:
“We gave up a lot of runs in the seventh inning. Brebbia didn’t have his best day today as far as accuracy, but overall he was accurate. He just left some pitches over the plate, and those guys are good in that part of the bullpen.”
Drew Thorpe allowed three singles in six scoreless innings, walked two and hit a batter, but stranded five runners on base while striking out five in his fifth straight start of at least six innings and fewer than three runs allowed.
“We couldn’t get anything going against him,” Quatraro said. “Guys were saying they’d never seen a changeup like that. We didn’t seem to have an answer for his cutter and his changeup.”
Pham had two hits for the White Sox, who lost their seventh straight game and suffered their 14th sweep of the season.
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