KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Michael Kopech buried his face in his glove and screamed.
It’s been that kind of year for the White Sox.
After trying to pitch through soreness behind his left knee that flared up when he took his warmups on the mound, Kopech faced only four batters and left Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The Royals scored four in the first, and the Sox came back to tie, but reliever Joe Kelly hit two batters to start a decisive two-run Royals eighth dropped the Sox (62-60) three games behind the first-place Guardians in the AL Central. That the Sox out-hit the Royals 10-6 with eight singles and two doubles but once again no home runs mattered not knowing they left 11 runners on base.
Go ahead and scream some more, everyone.
“It’s a frustrating loss,” manager Tony La Russa said. “We were down 4-0 and came back to tie it. If you wanna say we’re lousy, say we’re lousy.”
Topping off the frustration was Jose Abreu leading off the ninth with his third single to go with two walks, only to see Andrew Vaughn hit into a double play, the third twin-killing of the day and Vaughn’s second.
“The frustrating part is we had 10, 11 hits,” La Russa said. “We had chances and couldn’t break open the inning. Just left a lot of guys on base. So just a very frustrating loss. It’s upsetting to lose it.”
In Kansas City for one game between series in Cleveland and Baltimore, the Sox fell to 50-74 losing to a division foe that is 9-7 against them.
A vital piece in the starting rotation, Kopech will be further evaluated, putting him on a watch list that includes shortstop Tim Anderson, Yasmani Grandal, Aaron Bummer and Leury Garcia on the injured list, and Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Vaughn and Abreu dealing with assorted aches pains.
“You could tell his velocity was down so we got him out of there,” La Russa said.
Sox trainer James Kruk, pitching coach Ethan Katz and La Russa had gone to the mound after Kopech’s warmup tosses.
“He threw some balls to make sure and said, ‘No pain, no pain,’ so if you’re feeling not pain and it doesn’t affect your arm, see what you got,” La Russa said. “But you could see his velocity was down.”
Kopech then walked MJ Melendez, hit Bobby Witt Jr. on the left shoulder on an 0-2 pitch, allowed an RBI single to Salvador Perez and walked Vinnie Pasquantino to load the bases.
“What sucks the most about today is I put the team in a tough situation, second time this year I had to do that and second time the bullpen had to carry the workload for us,” Kopech said. “It just sucks, especially knowing the position we’re in, trying to make a push.”
Kelly, one of seven relievers used by La Russa, hit two batters and allowed a single to open the eighth, paving the way for a two-run inning.
“That’s not Joe,” La Russa said of the Sox’ reliever signed to a two-year, $17 million contract before the season.
Not of late it’s not. Kelly owned a 1.38 ERA in his previous 14 appearances, but saw his ERA climb to 6.23 for the season.
“First two guys hit by pitch and didn’t throw strikes,” Kelly said. “That’s what happens.”
Kopech has dealt with right knee soreness since he left a start against the Rangers in the first inning on June 12. His ERA climbed from 3.25 to 3.58.
“I don’t really know how to describe it – discomfort,” Kopech said. “We’re going to continue looking into it.
“I continued to work around it the entire inning. I think that was noticed from the dugout, they didn’t want me to hurt something else and put us in a worse situation. I wasn’t going to be able to help the team today. The hardheadedness in me wants to stay out as long as possible but I wasn’t doing us any favors.”
