Baseball never fails to amaze. Even a seemingly routine matchup between two AL Central rivals has the potential to throw up absolute madness… and that’s exactly what the Royals’ visit to the South Side produced.
Kansas City welcomed back their franchise player, Bobby Witt Jr. – arguably the best player in the AL this season – after a six-game absence with a sprained knee.
Rookie catcher Carter Jensen was in the midst of a 16-game hitting streak, Jac Caglianone is this month’s hottest non-hyphenated hitter, and they were facing David Sandlin and his 8.10 ERA on the bump for Chicago.
Nobody saw a 22-1 demolition by the White Sox coming.
The plan for KC was to have Steven Cruz open and hand over to Mitch Spence for the bulk innings. It actually started half-decently. Cruz struck out three in 1⅓ innings, and Spence came in to lock down the rest of the second to keep it 0-0.
And then the wheels came off, the chassis dragged along the ground, and the Kansas City Express completely exploded in the third.
If anything typifies these 2026 White Sox, it’s Sam Antonacci – just a pure ball of Italian energy. He kicked things off with Chicago’s first hit, but it was Miguel Vargas launching his 18th homer of the year that got the party started, making it 3-0.
The Royals looked completely lost out there. They were missing Vinnie Pasquantino‘s big target at first base, and Salvador Perez – bless him, he’s a legend, but he doesn’t exactly have the flexible physique that stretching for wide throws at first demands.
By the time Antonacci came up and got his second hit of the third inning, Jacob Gonzalez had already bashed the White Sox’ second three-run homer. Antonacci then sprinted all the way from first to home on a Vargas double to secure a ridiculous 10-run frame.
Poor Sandlin had to sit in the dugout for a 26-minute half-inning waiting for his teammates to stop hitting. When he finally got back out there for the fourth, he walked the first three hitters to load the bases. You wondered if the Royals were about to mount a crazy comeback, but Sandlin escaped, giving up just a solitary run.
Andrew Benintendi homered to make it 11-1, and then rookie catcher Kyle Teel – only playing in his third game of the year – launched a two-run shot off Lucas Erceg.
In the sixth, the bases were loaded again – partially thanks to a Salvy error – Tristan Peters took John Schreiber deep for a grand slam. Schreiber entered the game with a sparkling 1.42 ERA over his last 26 appearances! The Sox hitters were seeing the ball so well, you had to wonder if there was trash can banging in the stands.
The truly stunning part was that KC’s best bullpen arms were getting absolutely melted. Alex Lange, who was their closer until recently, got tagged for five runs in the seventh, with Gonzalez driving in two more to push it to 20-1.
Daniel Lynch IV was next into the firing line in the eighth. Vargas drilled one to third for a routine double play, but the call was overturned on review.
Now, I’m not sure what the unwritten rules say about reviewing plays when you’re winning by over 20 runs, but Vargas deserved the corrected call for hustling at that stage of the game.
The day before, the Rays’ Junior Caminero had absolutely destroyed a pitch from Royals position player Tyler Tolbert. Well, Tolbert was thrown out there to finish this one too, and ironically, he threw the Royals’ only scoreless inning since the second.
The 22-1 final ties the worst loss in Royals history and is the second-most runs the White Sox have scored in franchise history. And despite throwing six innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts, Sandlin’s season ERA is still hovering over 6.00.
The two teams meet again on Saturday, and the Royals are in a precarious spot having used so many of their high-leverage arms, which probably means a tight 1-0 Royals win.
Featured image of Kyle Teel by Jayden Mack/Getty Images
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