White Sox 7 - 5 Royals
Final
  for this game

Gillaspie, White Sox down Royals

Sep 17, 2014 - 6:15 AM Kansas City, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Conor Gillaspie's three-run triple in the seventh inning lifted the Chicago White Sox to a 7-5 victory over the playoff-hopeful Kansas City Royals in the second meeting of a three-game set.

Josh Phegley and Adam Eaton singled to begin the fateful seventh off Kelvin Herrera (3-3) -- one of eight relievers used by Kansas City. Alexei Ramirez grounded out to put runners at the corners before Wade Davis was called upon.

Davis walked Jose Abreu to load the bases, and Gillaspie split the gap in right-center to clear them and give the White Sox a 7-5 lead.

"I just didn't make the pitches I needed to make to get us out of that inning," Davis said.

Davis and Herrera both relinquished impressive scoreless streaks, with Davis going 31 2/3 innings and Herrera's stretch ending at 31.

"Those guys are impressive coming out of the pen, throwing 95 to 100. Every single one of those guys has good stuff. I think it shows the resilience of our team," Eaton said.

The Royals had an opportunity to close within a half-game of the Tigers, who lost Tuesday, in the AL Central race, but they still remain one game ahead of the Mariners for the second wild card spot.

Eric Surkamp (2-0) threw a scoreless inning of relief to earn the victory in the seesaw battle, while Zach Putnam tossed a perfect ninth to collect his fifth save of the season.

Abreu opened the scoring with an RBI groundout in the first to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Kansas City then loaded the bases with one out in the second but were held to just one run. Mike Moustakas singled in Salvador Perez and Eric Hosmer was thrown out at home by Avisail Garcia trying to score from second.

Alexei Ramirez drove a sacrifice fly out to right in the third to regain Chicago's one-run lead. However, Alex Gordon connected with an two-run single in the home third to push the Royals in front.

In the fourth, Carlos Sanchez knocked in Garcia with a sacrifice fly before Phegley added a sac fly of his own to make it a 4-3 White Sox lead.

Gordon walked to begin the fifth, stole second, moved over to third on a wild pitch by Daniel Webb and crossed home on a sacrifice fly by Omar Infante to tie the game.

Nori Aoki gave KC the lead again in the sixth with a single up the middle to score Alcides Escobar.

Game Notes

The Royals used nine pitchers in a nine-inning game for the first time in franchise history ... Eaton had four of Chicago's 13 hits, while Aoki had four of KC's nine hits ... Kansas City starter Liam Hendricks surrendered four runs on seven hits over three-plus innings ... Chris Bassitt got the start for the White Sox and allowed three runs on six hits and four walks over 3 2/3 innings ... Game time: 4:16, the longest nine-inning game in Royals history.






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