Royals-White Sox game suspended while tied in top of ninth due to rain
CHICAGO -- The grounds crew came out once, and again, and again. The routine became commonplace by the end of Friday. Each time Chicago's groundskeepers burst onto the swamped diamond, they wielded shovels and shouldered bags of dirt, abandoning the tarp in left field's foul territory.
But then at 10:10 p.m., they dropped their shovels and ditched their dirt, unpeeled the tarp and rolled it onto the infield with Kansas City and Chicago tied at two in the top of the ninth inning. The umpires suspended the game 40 minutes later, the game scheduled to be resumed at 1:10 p.m. Saturday. Saturday's regularly scheduled game will follow it.
Saturday's forecast calls for more rain, though, and could jeopardize the ending of Friday's game and all of Saturday's game. The teams are scheduled to play the series finale Sunday.
"We're either going to beat it or we're not," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Or we'll play Sunday."
Yost said Kansas City would send Kelvin Herrera to the mound for the ninth inning Saturday. He added that the extra day gives the Royals an opportunity to get Ryan Madson and Yohan Pino ready for relief duty.
Every trip before the delay, the grounds crew dumped fresh dry clay on the infield, spewed it around the drenched surface while players stepped aside and watched as a new layer was applied seemingly at every pause in the action. Despite steadily descending rain, play continued until the White Sox walked off the field after the umpires made the decision to halt the contest.
Puddles dotted the dirt and different hues of brown speckled the infield by the time the tarp cloaked the field. It all came after a solid start from Danny Duffy, who wiggled his way in and out of trouble across his 5 1/3 innings. He surrendered one unearned run on six hits while striking out three.
"He threw the ball really well," Yost said. "He had good stuff, commanded the ball well. Conditions were tough out there. It's tough to grip the ball. It's wet, it's cold, it's windy. He did a good job."
Duffy allowed a baserunner to reach second base in four of the six innings he started, and sat down the White Sox in order only once. But it was an error that cost Duffy a run in the fourth inning.
Alexei Ramirez grounded a ball to shortstop to lead off the inning. Alcides Escobar fielded the ball but unleashed a wild throw to first base that ended in the Royals' dugout. Ramirez advanced to second on Escobar's second throwing error in as many days.
Ramirez moved to third when Adam LaRoche flew out to center and scored two batters later, when Tyler Flowers grounded out to second. The White Sox did not have a hit in the inning.
But Duffy danced out of troubled in the first and the third, giving up two hits in each inning and emerging unscathed. He stranded six runners on the night and exited the game with a runner on second one out into the sixth inning.
Duffy left with a 2-1 lead thanks to RBI singles from Escobar in the third and Paulo Orlando in the fifth. Orlando was 3 for 3, knocking a double, scoring a run and notching an RBI.
The 2-1 lead evaporated, though, in the seventh inning against Royals left-hander Franklin Morales. Adam Eaton tripled to lead off the inning and Melky Cabrera drove him in with a sacrifice fly to right. The game was tied but the rain persisted.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
