Kansas City Royals vs Chicago White Sox Match Player Stats On Sep 24, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 24, 2017

CHICAGO -- Avisail Garcia hit his 18th home run of the season and Lucas Giolito threw seven strong innings to lead the Chicago White Sox to an 8-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday afternoon, hurting the Royals' playoff chances.

Garcia drove in three runs and Kevan Smith had two RBIs for the White Sox, who have won three of four and nine of their last 15.

Lorenzo Cain homered for the Royals, who fell to 5 1/2 games behind Minnesota for the second American League wild card with seven games remaining.

Giolito (3-3) struck out five and gave up one run, five hits and no walks in seven innings. He has pitched seven innings in three of his seven starts this season.

Royals starter Ian Kennedy (4-13) allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings to drop his seventh straight decision. He traveled from Kansas City to Chicago on Saturday after the birth of his first son.

In eight previous career starts against the White Sox, Kennedy was 2-2 with a 4.63 ERA.

Garcia hit a two-run home run after Yoan Moncada doubled in the first inning.

Cain led off the fourth inning with his 15th home run to cut the lead in half.

In the bottom of the fourth, Smith added a two-out solo home run to extend the lead to 3-1. Yolmer Sanchez's RBI double in the fifth and Smith's run-scoring single in the sixth stretched Chicago's lead to 5-1.

In the seventh inning, Chicago added three runs on Garcia's RBI double and a two-run error by third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert. Garcia

increased his career-high total for RBIs in a season to 80.

Winning two of three in the weekend series, the White Sox took the season series 10-9.

NOTES: Chicago White Sox 1B Jose Abreu (shin) got the day off for rest Sunday after getting his 100th RBI of the season Saturday. He has at least 100 RBIs in four consecutive seasons. Manager Rick Renteria said Abreu would get at least one day of rest. ... White Sox SS Tim Anderson extended his career-high hitting streak to 15 games with a single in the first inning. It is the longest active streak in the majors. ... The Kansas City Royals will play their final road game of the season Monday against the New York Yankees to make up a May 25 rainout. ... Royals 2B Whit Merrifield tops the American League with 33 steals in 38 attempts for 86.8 percent. The last Kansas City player to lead the league in stolen bases was Johnny Damon (46) in 2000.