Lucas Giolito pitched six strong innings to lead the host Chicago White Sox to a 5-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday afternoon.
Giolito (3-3) turned in his eighth consecutive start of at least six innings, surrendering a run on six hits and a walk, fanning four.
Jake Burger provided the big hit, a bases-clearing double to the wall in right center, expanding the White Sox lead to 5-1 in the sixth.
Chicago collected three consecutive hits with one out in the first inning, capped by Yoan Moncada’s two-run single, for a 2-1 lead. Luis Robert Jr. doubled in the inning — tying for the team lead with 13 — and is tied for the major-league lead with 25 extra-base hits.
Moncada walked in the sixth, loading the bases and chasing Royals starter Jordan Lyles (0-8) from the game before Burger greeted reliever Jose Cuas with his three-run double.
Lyles went five innings, allowing five runs (four earned) on four hits and three walks, striking out five.
Over 10 starts, Lyles has a career-worst eight consecutive losses. Lyles’ 7.15 ERA is the highest in the majors among starters.
Four White Sox relievers closed out the Royals on one hit over the final three innings.
Chicago has won five of seven.
After managing just one hit in Friday’s 2-0 loss, the Royals wasted no time getting in the hit column as Bobby Witt Jr. smashed the first pitch of the game through the mound for a leadoff single.
After a double play, Salvador Perez put Kansas City on the scoreboard with a solo shot that barely cleared the left-field wall, his team-leading 10th, and his fifth career homer off Giolito.
Perez also doubled among his three hits off Giolito, against whom he is a career .432 hitter (16-for-37).
The Royals were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and struck out three times while stranding a runner at third base to end an inning.
Kansas City has lost six of eight.
— Field Level Media