White Sox get Eloy Jimenez back but lose 4-3 to Royals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The White Sox welcomed Eloy Jimenez back with love and open arms Monday night, and no one was more excited than Jimenez himself.

“With what happened in spring training, and now I’m completely back from what happened,” Jimenez said, “I’m really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really excited.”

That’s 10 “really exciteds” for those keeping score.

Maybe too excited, in fact.

In Jimenez’ season debut, there was little stir, really, from him or his teammates in a 4-3 loss against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won their sixth in a row, and the Sox fell for the fourth time in five games. Batting fourth as the Sox designated hitter, Jimenez grounded out twice, struck out and fouled out to first leading off the ninth inning.

A Silver Slugger winner in 2020 who suffered a torn pectoral muscle in spring training, Jimenez doesn’t figure to have many 0-fers.

“I see the ball good, I was just super excited,” Jimenez said. “It was good to feel that adrenaline again. From now on, I just need to concentrate and not let the games speed up. In a couple of games, I’m going to be back.”

Before the game, Jimenez was beside himself with anticipation.

“Look at my face,” Jimenez said. “What does my face tell you right now? It’s exciting to be back with the boys, especially with how they’re playing right now.”

The first-place Sox (59-41) were nine games in front of the Indians in the AL Central despite not having Jimenez. A message in the visitors clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium said, ‘‘We’re in contention when you get here, now it’s up to you, all up to you.’’

Jimenez laughed when he saw it, manager Tony La Russa said.

“You add another productive hitter, it just deepens the lineup, especially one in the middle,” La Russa said of Jimenez, who batted .296/.332/.559 with 14 home runs and 41 RBI in 2020. “Not only does it practically give you more opportunities to score, but psychologically, what it does to guys in front of or behind him: ‘I’ve just got to put mine in, I don’t have to do more.’ It’s a huge asset.”

Jimenez hit .263 with two doubles, a home run and two RBI in 10 rehab games with Charlotte from July 10-24. He made nine starts in left field and three as the designated hitter, a role he disdains, so much so that being asked about it was the only thing that wiped the smile away from his face.

La Russa said Jimenez probably would play left field Tuesday and DH again Wednesday.

“Well, if he asks me, I’m here for my team,” Jimenez said. “Even if I don’t like it, whatever he want me to play, I’m going to be here.”

Dallas Keuchel (7-4, 4.32 ERA) pitched six innings and allowed four runs, three of them on two homers by Jorge Soler, including a 449-foot blast to center field in the second, and another by Andrew Benintendi, who snapped an 0-for-15 streak.

“Seems like I’m making good pitches early or behind in the count but it’s like one or two pitches that get me in trouble,” Keuchel said. “I have to clean that up and make better pitches, there’s no way around it.”

Left-hander Mike Minor (8-8, 5.32 ERA) held the Sox to two runs over six innings and didn’t allow a hit until Adam Engel doubled in the fifth. An inning later, the Sox got within 3-2 when Andrew Vaughn slapped a single inside the first-base line that scored Seby Zavala (walk) and Tim Anderson (double).

Engel’s RBI single in the ninth against Scott Barlow cut the Sox deficit to 4-3, but Engel, running on a 3-2 pitch, was doubled off first on Brian Goodwin’s soft liner to second to end the game.