White Sox 4, Kansas City 2
Kansas City had the White Sox right where they wanted them.
A lead in the late innings for their veteran set-up corps to get to All-Star Royals closer Joakim Soria.
It couldn’t have turned out much worse.
Jim Thome clocked a three-run homer with two outs in the eighth against Kyle Farnsworth, and the Royals limped out of U.S. Cellular Field with a numbing 4-2 loss to the White Sox.
“Opening Day, there’s a lot of emotions,” the 38-year-old Thome said. “No matter how long you’ve played the game, you still get jittery, you still get that nervous excitement.”
Although it was the veteran slugger who will get the headlines, it was the White Sox’s so-called young guys who made the victory over Kansas City possible.
Here’s how.
Josh Fields: Starting at third base in place of the departed and still popular Joe Crede, Fields made a spectacular backhand stab behind third base and threw home for a forceout to hold the Royals to one fifth-inning run.
He also drove in the first Sox run with a two-out, bases-loaded single in the second before starting the eighth-inning rally with a surprise bunt single.
The skeptics, however, were out early when a ground ball eluded his dive.
“I know what’s coming,” he said. “I know I’m going to get compared to Joe pretty much all season.”
Chris Getz: Batting second, he turned a third-inning dribbler off the second baseman’s glove into a double, then lined an eighth-inning hit-and-run single to right field before Thome’s homer.
“[The leg double] was definitely risky but sometimes you have to do that kind of stuff,” he said.
Clayton Richard: Retired six straight in the sixth and seventh innings after starter Mark Buehrle struggled to a 2-1 deficit.
“Coming in at that time you know the game is still in hand,” he said. “That young group is excited to get an opportunity to play, and today we made the most of it.”
Dewayne Wise: Wise heard about his failures from the large crowd of 37,449, the boos growing in the eighth when he failed twice to sacrifice.
“That’s what’s good about this game,” he said. “I was 0-for-4 with a hat trick (three strikeouts), but tomorrow I could go 4-for-4, and the crowd could be back on my side.”
