Jose Abreu's dash to the plate helps White Sox salvage split with Royals

Well, the White Sox didn't play the most inspiring series against the Kansas City Royals this weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field. They won only two out of the four games, which is good only in the sense that they lost two out of the first three, and come Sunday, a split was the best they could do.

And on Sunday, they were trailing 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. They scored two runs and won, 4-3, capped off by Jose Abreu scoring from third on a wild pitch that wasn't all that wild.

If you haven't seen the video of that play yet, be sure to check it out.

First off, I think Kansas City manager Mike Matheny made some bizarre decisions managing his bullpen this weekend. He used his usual closer, Josh Staumont, to finish off a 6-2 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader Friday. (The Sox won the second game, 3-1). Then he used Staumont in a non-save situation again Saturday, when Kansas City won 5-1.

So, presumably Staumont was unavailable Sunday after needlessly pitching back-to-back days in non-save situations. That left erstwhile veteran Wade Davis to try to close Sunday's game for the Royals, and he failed.

Tim Anderson doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Adam Eaton and scored the tying run on a single by Yoan Moncada.

Abreu was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Yermin Mercedes followed with a single to right field, but Moncada blew through a stop sign by third-base coach Joe McEwing and got thrown out at the plate for the second out.

Fortunately, Abreu took third on the throw, and that ended up mattering. Yasmani Grandal was the next Sox hitter, and of course, opposing teams put on a shift for him when he's batting left-handed.

That means the third baseman is nowhere near the third-base line, and any runner on third can get a pretty good lead in the event that there's a ball in the dirt. From my vantage point -- I was sitting down the third-base line, as you can see in the photo I took before the game started -- Abreu was getting a substantial lead.

And when Davis bounced a breaking ball, Abreu wasted no time breaking for home, even though Kansas City catcher Cam Gallagher did a nice job of blocking the pitch and keeping the ball in the area of the plate. 

Was Abreu safe or out on the bang-bang play at the plate, as Gallagher lunged to try to tag Abreu before he touched the plate? Not sure, but I don't think there was a camera angle that showed anything conclusively. In those cases, the call on the field stands, and the call on the field was safe.

Quite a finish. I've seen plenty of games end on wild pitches, but never one quite like that.