Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Royals unable to break Holland in loss to Chicago
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Derek Holland hitched up the heavy, gaudy wrestling belt strapped around his waist and flashed the kind of smile any world champion would wear after having their arm raised in the ring.
It was fitting, too, the way the White Sox left-hander pinned down the Royals on Thursday.
Holland scattered three hits while pitching into the seventh inning, and Jose Abreu and Matt Davidson went deep, helping Chicago to a 8-3 win over Kansas City and a split of their four-game set.
"It's about time I earned this," Holland said of the belt, which is awarded by Melky Cabrera and a bunch of other White Sox teammates to the game MVP. "It's hard to get it."
Holland (3-2) has deserved it on several occasions: He's allowed two earned runs or fewer in his first six outings this season. In this one, he struck out seven with only one walk before exiting with two outs in the seventh, and only one of the two runs charged to him was earned.
"Listen, he came to spring training and everyone was asking what we expected of him," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "He's doing exactly what we expected of him."
Meanwhile, Royals counterpart Ian Kennedy was going through a double-dose of misfortune.
First, the right-hander surrendered five runs on six hits and a walk in his first truly shaky start of the season. Then, Kennedy (0-3) was forced to leave with one out in the fifth after feeling a pinch in his right hamstring — an MRI exam during the game revealed a Grade 1 strain.
"Walking I don't feel it, just the pitching motion and doing everything else," Kennedy said. "It's one of those things we'll see how it feels tomorrow. It stinks."
Asked whether Kennedy was headed for the disabled list, manager Ned Yost replied: ""I don't know. We're discussing our options right now."
Kennedy struggled from the onset, giving up a one-out single to Cabrera and a 427-foot homer to Abreu in the first. Davidson added his solo shot into the fountains in left in the second.
In the fourth, Kennedy was victimized by an error, hit a batter and committed a balk before giving up back-to-back hits. He also walked a batter as the White Sox pushed two more runs across.
"I was missing my spots. I was all over the place," Kennedy said. "It was just a bad day."
Five runs were more than enough for Holland, who retired the first 10 batters he faced.
Mixing a fastball and sinker, Holland kept the punchless Royals guessing all the afternoon, silencing a Kauffman Stadium crowd filled with kids out for "School Day at the K." He only allowed two doubles before the seventh inning, when the Royals finally managed to coax two runs across.