KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) The Kansas City Royals are 1-0 in May after ending April with nine consecutive defeats.
Eric Hosmer and Jorge Bonifacio hit two-run homers, and the Royals snapped their losing streak with a 6-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.
“You definitely want to end it,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “You don’t want to take it any further. It’s nice to get it over with. You can kind of catch your breath and see if we can’t start a streak the other way.”
Bonifacio homered with two outs in the fourth after Alex Gordon doubled. It was his second home run in eight games since being promoted April 21 from Triple-A Omaha.
Hosmer’s two-out homer in the seventh inning with Christian Colon aboard finished the night for White Sox rookie starter Dylan Covey (0-2).
“It’s been a while since we’ve done that,” Hosmer said of shaking hands after a victory. “It felt great. April is behind us. It was a bad month, an awful month honestly. Hopefully we can get hot in the month of May when we’re playing a lot of division games.”
Salvador Perez‘s single in the fifth struck the third base bag and scored Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas with two outs.
Left-hander Jason Vargas (4-1) allowed one run on five hits and three walks over six innings to pick up the win. Vargas has a 1.42 ERA in five starts.
Peter Moylan, Joakim Soria and Scott Alexander worked three hitless innings, striking out five, after Vargas was removed after 96 pitches.
Covey was charged with six runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings, his longest major league outing.
“I feel like I’m getting better every day,” Covey said. “Obviously, it’s frustrating that results aren’t there. But, I feel like I got better from my last start to today. I threw some quality pitches, threw some pitches to get out of jams. Just, obviously a couple of home runs hurt me.”
Jacob May’s ground-ball single in the fourth scored Todd Frazier with the lone White Sox run. May was hitting .030, 1 for 33, at the time.
White Sox reliever Michael Ynoa walked Bonifacio and Brandon Moss and hit Escobar to load the bases with one out in the eighth before Colon grounded into a double play.
MAY OPTIONED
The White Sox optioned May to Triple-A Charlotte after the game. The 25-year-old outfielder is hitting .056, 2 for 36, with three RBIs and three walks in 15 games. “I definitely have to get better,” said May, who hit .319 in spring training. “Spring’s one thing, but when the lights turn on, these guys play for keeps and you’ve got to be able to compete. So, I’ve got to go down and get better.” The White Sox will make a corresponding move Tuesday.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox: OF Avisail Garcia, who leads the American League with a .368 batting average, was held out of the lineup after leaving the Sunday game with left groin tightness. “I’m just going to give him another day,” manager Rick Renteria said. “It’s a little cool out there today – precaution and another day to get it worked on.” . James Shields (right lat strain) threw on flat ground for the second time since being placed on the disabled list April 21.
Royals: OF Jorge Soler (strained oblique) went 2 for 2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch Monday while rehabbing for Triple-A Omaha in a 2-1 victory over Oklahoma City. Soler is hitting .308 with a .958 OPS in eight rehab games.
UP NEXT
White Sox: LHP Jose Quintana is 2-9 with a 4.27 ERA against the Royals.
Royals: LHP Danny Duffy is 8-0 with a 3.43 ERA since the start of the 2016 season at Kauffman Stadium.
Photo credit – Charlie Riedel / Associated Press / Kansas City, MO
