Oh how good it feels to beat the White Sox.
Oh how good it feels that the win comes at the expense of A.J. Pierzynski.
Wednesday evening the Royals defeated the White Sox 2-1 in 11 innings after Alex Gordon raced down the third base line and slid head first through home plate on a Chris Sale wild pitch as Kansas City finally picked up their 40th win of the season.
Bruce Chen was great in his eight innings of work, giving up just one run on four hits. Carlos Quentin touched Chen for a solo home run in the fifth, Quentin's 19th homer of the season. If the Royals are indeed shopping Chen as the trade deadline approaches, it certainly was a start that will peak the interest of many contending teams. Chen likely could have lasted longer if needed as he had a superb pitch count totaling just 83 pitches through eight innings.
Kansas City finally got a run in the eighth inning as Jeff Francoeur doubled to right to score Gordon and knot the game at one run a piece.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 11th inning, White Sox reliever Chris Sale retired the first two Royals batters before walking Gordon and giving up a single to Mitch Maier. Sale then gave way to Sergio Santos who on the fourth pitch of Billy Butler's at-bat threw a wild pitch to plate the winning run.
Aaron Crow picked up the win in relief, moving to 4-2. Meanwhile Sale took the loss in falling to 2-1.
The Royals take the series against Chicago and head into an off day tomorrow with a 40-58 record. Kansas City sits 11.5 games out of first, and is now 6.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins for fourth place in the American League Central.