Jose Abreu homered for the second straight game and Lance Lynn pitched six strong innings to lift the host Chicago White Sox to a 4-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday afternoon.
The White Sox took two of three from Kansas City while collecting double-digit hits in each game. Liam Hendriks worked a perfect ninth to notch his 21st save as the Chicago relief corps retired nine of 10 batters faced.
Chicago’s Eloy Jimenez extended his hitting streak to a season-high nine games, finishing 3-for-4 with three singles. Jimenez had four multi-hit games over the past week to help the White Sox to a 4-2 homestand against Oakland and Kansas City.
The White Sox moved to two games over .500 for the first time since April 20.
Lynn needed a mere 24 pitches to retire the first six Royals in order. Then the rains came.
After enduring a 65-minute rain delay, Lynn shook off a Michael Massey single to open the Kansas City third and another Massey single with one out in the fifth. A product of south suburban Palos Park, Ill., and a childhood White Sox fan, Massey made good in a homecoming as he was called up from Triple-A before the game.
Bobby Witt Jr. cracked a solo home run in the sixth to open the scoring for Kansas City and trim the deficit to three runs.
The White Sox got on the board on a Yoan Moncada RBI single against Royals starter Brady Singer in the first inning. Chicago broke things open in the third, as Tim Anderson and Jimenez singled ahead of Abreu, who launched a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right center for a three-run shot.
Abreu has homered in three of the past four games, and with Andrew Vaughn and Josh Harrison had two hits.
Lynn improved to 2-4 and earned his first win since June 20, scattering one run and four hits in six innings, with eight strikeouts against zero walks.
Singer (4-4) allowed four runs and 11 hits, with one walk and three strikeouts.
Witt Jr. had two hits for Kansas City, which has lost seven of nine.
–Field Level Media
