It was the best of road trips. It was the worst of road trips.
The White Sox finished their last long trip of the season with a 5-3 defeat to the Kansas City Royals Thursday night in Royals Stadium.
The loss dropped the Sox to 6-6 on the trip-not bad, but far from good. They went 5-0 in Milwaukee but a combined 1-6 in Boston and Kansas City.
The loss knocked the Sox four games back of Oakland in the West Division. The Sox trailed by just two games when they set out on the road back on July 30.
They still own baseball`s second-best record, 64-44, and they`re still 12 games above .500 on the road.
But that didn`t make three losses to one of the West Division`s doormats easier to take.
For six innings, the Sox looked like a team that had spent one night too many in a hotel. Then they came alive in the seventh to slice a 5-0 lead to 5-3.
Though the rally fell short, this was exactly the sort of game manager Jeff Torborg was talking about a few hours before game time.
”The thing that amazes me is the intensity we`ve played with,” he said. ”Here it is the 9th of August and we`ve had so many close ones for so long.
”It`d be one thing if you were blowing people out or being blown out, but we haven`t been,” Torborg said. ”Shoot, if it isn`t close, they`ll make it close. They`ll do anything to get Bobby a save.”
Thigpen got one here after saving three last weekend in Milwaukee.
The reason was starting pitching. The White Sox had too little in their three losses, and the Royals had too much.
On Monday night Melido Perez was bounced in 2 1/3 innings, and on Wednesday night Greg Hibbard lasted exactly that long.
Adam Peterson got beyond the third, but only at a cost to his earned-run average.
Twelve of the first 24 Kansas City batters reached base, but Peterson was left to fend for himself.
Torborg might have been saving his bullpen for the four-game series with Texas that begins with a double-header at 5 p.m. Friday in Comiskey Park.
Peterson allowed a hit in every inning until he was lifted the seventh, but he shut the Royals out the last three innings.
He allowed 13 hits, five more than his previous high this year, and they expanded his earned run average to 3.86 from 3.52.
The Royals unloaded on Peterson early and often. Their second batter, Bill Pecota, tripled to left field and came in on George Brett`s grounder.
Peterson gave up two hits and a walk in the second, but Carlton Fisk threw out Gerald Perry trying to steal second to stall the attack.
That didn`t stop K.C. for long. Kevin Seitzer, Brett and Perry singled to make it 2-0 in the third, and later the Royals teed off.
With one down in the fourth, Kurt Stillwell singled and scored the Royals` third run on Brian McRae`s double. A walk to Seitzer set the table for Brett, who lined a two-out double to right field to make it 5-0.
Not once during this rampage did the Sox`s bullpen stir.
Neither did the White Sox`s hitters, at least for the first six innings.
They put runners in scoring position in four of the first five innings but came away with nothing against right-handed starter Kevin Appier, who came in with a sleek 3.11 ERA. They went a combined 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position during that stretch.
But that all changed in the seventh, and quickly.
The spark came from rookie Frank Thomas, who drilled his second single of the night, raising his batting average to .320 (8 for 25).
Thomas is a power hitter, but on both hits he showed the ability to slap the outside pitch through the right side of the infield.
Robin Ventura, dropped to the No. 7 spot as Torborg juggled his batting order, flied to left, but then Scott Fletcher bounced an artificial turf hit over second base to put runners at first and second.
Then Ozzie Guillen doubled into the right-field corner to score Thomas, and the Sox were alive again.
Phil Bradley connected for his third single, this one a liner up the middle, and the deficit was cut to 5-3.
Royal manager John Wathan immediately called on Steve Farr, who induced Lance Johnson to bounce into a double play. Torborg disagreed, but first base umpire Larry Young wouldn`t budge.
