[Biggp07]

👑 Saturday, April 12 • White Sox Series Game 3 👑

Pressure First, Protect Last, Clean Finish

Chicago White Sox at Kansas City Royals | Kauffman Stadium
Weather: Clear skies, 56° | Wind out to CF (11 mph) | Attendance: 35,568 | First pitch: 6:10 PM CT

Pregame Memo (Manager's Desk)

Before we even talked lineups, the front office work had to get handled: we signed Conner Gillespie to a minor-league deal and DFA'd Alex Claudio to open the lane—an expensive lesson, but sometimes the roster math forces your hand.



Figure 2. Connor Gillespie — minor-league bullpen pickup and emergency bridge option. A low-cost depth add that protects the back end when workloads spike.

We also put in a claim on LHP Jacon Lopez (Rays org) because I’d rather have one more controllable lefty option sitting at Triple-A than be caught thin later.



Figure 3. Jacob Lopez — left-handed arm claimed for organizational depth. Optionable rotation/bullpen flexibility for Omaha, and a controllable look if we need a second-wave lefty later.
________________________________________

Chicago White Sox Series Snapshot

Two games in, this White Sox set has already taken on a familiar shape: our pitching dictating the tempo, and our offense doing just enough damage at the right time. We opened the series with a tight 1–0 win that felt like a statement about our floor—clean defense, controlled counts, and zero panic when runs were hard to come by. Then we backed it up with a 4–2 win that looked more like the version of this roster I’m trying to build: early pressure, steady leverage work out of the bullpen, and no free outs given back.

Now we walk into Game 3 with the chance to turn a good homestand into a sweep—and with Chicago sending RHP Luis Severino (0–1, 6.35 ERA), the assignment is simple: make him work early, force traffic, and keep our own starter in rhythm so we can hand the late innings to our best weapons.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP Z. Eflin (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs RHP J. Iriarte (0-1, 16.88 ERA)
LHP C. Ragans (0-1, 5.06 ERA) vs RHP N. Nastrini (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
RHP H. Brown (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs RHP L. Severino (0-1, 6.35 ERA)
RHP S. Turnbull (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs RHP B. Lively (1-0, 2.70 ERA)

The top 5 players on their team are:
1. 1B Colson Montgomery (Age: 23, Overall: 75, Potential: 5.0)
2. SP Drew Thorpe (24, 60, 4.0)
3. CF Luis Robert Jr. (27, 55, 3.0)
4. RP Thomas Pannone (30, 50, 2.5)
5. CL Prelander Berroa (24, 50, 2.5)

Series Matchup Board — Chicago White Sox Series Game 3

• RHP Hunter Brown (1–0, 3.00 ERA) vs. RHP Luis Severino (0–1, 6.35 ERA).

This was the kind of game where you want to strike first and let your starter dictate pace. Brown's stuff plays when he's ahead—fastball life, breaking ball that finishes counts. Severino, on the other hand, is dangerous if you let him get comfortable; the key is to make him throw stress pitches with runners on, not just strike-throwing pitches with nobody on.
________________________________________

Game Day Log — Royals vs. White Sox (Game 3)

Manager’s Clipboard

On the baseball side, the dugout message was clean: Davis Schneider stays down with the calf strain, so Nick Pratto gets the DH runway again—real MLB at-bats, real feedback, no hiding. In a four-game set, you don’t just “fill in,” you earn innings.

Inning-by-Inning Beats (Dugout View)

1st Inning
We hit the gas immediately. Maikel Garcia legged out an infield single to start the night, and even though Vinnie punched out and Witt rolled one, Michael Massey cashed it—two-out RBI double to put us up 1–0. That’s the exact early punch I want at home: quick pressure, scoreboard first.

2nd Inning
Brown had to deal with traffic early—Chicago put two on in the first and another hit in the second—but he stayed composed and kept the damage at zero. I can live with singles; I can’t live with spirals.

3rd Inning
This was the “we’re not waiting around” inning. Dillon Dingler singled, Garcia singled, and then Vinnie Pasquantino lined a run-scoring single to extend it to 2–0—and we got greedy in the right way: runner from third challenged the throw home and scored, keeping the inning alive and pushing the defense into uncomfortable decisions.

Then Bobby Witt Jr. lifted a sac fly and we were suddenly sitting 3–0 without needing a homer to do it. That’s winning baseball: traffic + contact + smart aggression.

4th Inning
Chicago punched back, and they did it with one swing. Wilfred Veras singled, then Jo Adell launched a two-run homer (430 feet) to cut it to 3–2. Dugout went quiet for about ten seconds—then Brown settled and finished the inning. No extra damage.

5th–6th Innings
This is where Brown earned the win. Chicago kept finding hits—especially Hechavarría (two doubles)—, but Brown kept stranding them with strikeouts and routine outs. We had a mini-chance in the 6th with back-to-back singles from Payton and Renfroe, but we grounded into a double play and didn’t add on. Still 3–2, still tense.

7th Inning
That’s why you keep swinging with intent even when the game feels tight. Nick Pratto, DH’ing for the injured Schneider, jumped on Severino's first pitch and hit a solo homer (369 feet) to make it 4–2. The dugout popped because that wasn’t just insurance—that was development meeting leverage.

8th–9th Innings
We handed the finish to Justin Topa, and he did exactly what you want from a back-end arm: two clean innings, one hit, no drama, and the last out landed like a door closing.
________________________________________

Final

Royals 4, White Sox 2
Royals (9 H, 0 E) | White Sox (9 H, 0 E)

Hunter Brown was named Player of the Game and earned it: 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 7 K, kept competing even when the hit count piled up.

Kansas City Pitching Scoreline

Pitcher                  IP     H    R   ER   BB    K   HR    PI  ERA
Hunter Brown W (2-0)     7.0    8    2    2    0    7    1    98   2.25
Justin Topa SV (1)       2.0    1    0    0    0    1    0    25   5.68

Front Office Note / Takeaways

From the GM chair, this was a quietly important kind of win: we’re stacking results while also stress-testing roster decisions. Pratto’s homer is exactly the kind of return you hope for when you give a young bat real responsibility—especially with Schneider down. And Topa giving us a two-inning save is the kind of bullpen flexibility that pays you back later in a four-game series.

From the manager's chair, I loved the first three-innings identity: run early, pressure the defense, keep playing nine innings hard. (And yeah—I said it after: “Say what you want about this team, they play nine innings hard.” That’s not a slogan. That’s the standard.)

Around the League

The draft declaration deadline passed, and the league distributed the list of eligible players — our scouting process is officially underway. The transactions wire remains active, and we’re closely monitoring early roster moves like it’s April tax season.
We pick 4th in the first round this year without a supplemental round, so our second pick will be among the top 50 prospects. It’s too early to rate prospects now, but we have a few we plan to review more closely in the front office later.

Reports out of Atlanta indicate that Ronald Acuna Jr., the gifted right fielder, might be sidelined for one week or so with a bruised hand. The 27-year-old star suffered the injury in yesterday's Diamondbacks-Braves game while being hit by a pitch.
________________________________________

👑 FOR THE CROWN — ALWAYS 👑

Kansas City Royals | Regular Season 2025 - Game 9



(OOTP25 Royals Journey — GM/Manager's Dual Log)