CHICAGO -- Royals left-hander Danny Duffy gave his team six strong innings of two-run ball, but a few mistakes in the seventh tarnished his night as the Royals fell, 6-3, to the White Sox on Friday at Guaranteed Rate Field.
And that's what Duffy will remember most, as his team dropped its fifth straight. The left-hander allowed five runs, three of which came in the seventh, over 6 1/3 innings to go with eight strikeouts.
"I felt really good in the fourth, fifth and sixth," Duffy said. "Ball was coming out really good. But it happened really quick [in the seventh]. I've got to be better than that.
"Two games in a row, I spotted the other team the lead. I've got to pitch better than that."
Duffy most lamented the fact he also gave up runs in each of the first two innings.
"Our offense has been great, doing a great job, but it's hard when I go out there in the most important part of the season and spot them runs.," Duffy said. "It's very frustrating."
The Royals have fallen five games behind the first-place Indians in the American League Central and 1 1/2 games behind the Twins for the second AL Wild Card spot. Since winning nine straight in late July, Kansas City has dropped 11 of its last 14.
"It all happens quick in this game sometimes," Duffy said. "We're in a frustrating period right now, but we're going to come out of this. It's about continuing to battle. There's no lack of competitiveness, no lack of fire. We're not happy with this period of the season. None of us are.
"And we shouldn't be happy. We haven't been playing good baseball."
Duffy insisted he and his teammates would snap out of this spell soon.
"I don't think there's some kind of complex," Duffy said. "We're just in a bad spot. It's a brutal part of the season, but there is a lot of season left. We're going to do better."