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Guillen, Hochevar lead Royals past White Sox 7-2

May 5, 2010 - 4:19 AM CHICAGO(AP) -- After getting the early hook in his last outing, Luke Hochevar had his manager a little on edge again.

Hochevar regained his composure after a brief scare in the first inning and coasted through the Chicago White Sox's lineup.

Jose Guillen hit a two-run homer and Hochevar pitched six sharp innings as the Kansas City Royals defeated the White Sox 7-2 on Tuesday night.

"First couple of hitters I was nervous because he was having trouble, going east to west a little bit, but he settled in," manager Trey Hillman said. "Especially bouncing back from what happened to him in Tampa, I thought it was a very good outing for him."

Hochevar (3-1) allowed just one unearned run on three hits and pitched around four walks. He rebounded after he was tagged for nine runs and 11 hits over just 2 2-3 innings Thursday in an 11-1 loss at Tampa Bay.

After walking his first two batters, Hochevar got Andruw Jones to hit into a double play and struck out Paul Konerko and never ran into trouble again.

"I'd pretty much made up my mind after 6 (innings), I thought it was good enough," Hillman said. "Not necessarily a pitch count, it was more based on he'd done his job, gave us a quality start. In comparison to what he did in Tampa the other day, he came in here and did a pretty good job."

Hochevar said he didn't make any adjustments in his mechanics between the starts.

"I didn't change anything, stuck with what I've been doing," Hochevar said. "Trusting my stuff, trying to stay positive, go out and try to throw a good ballgame. I felt like I had a good approach. The first two hitters, the ball just wasn't going where I wanted. But I settled in, got in a groove, and started pounding the strike zone a lot more."

Mike Aviles had three hits, including a solo homer in the ninth, and Scott Podsednik had two hits, including an RBI triple against his former for the Royals, who had 16 hits.

A.J. Pierzynski homered for the White Sox, who had their home four-game winning streak snapped. Overall, the White Sox have lost five of its last eight games and are already seven games behind the first-place Twins in the AL Central.

Gavin Floyd (1-3) continued to struggle, allowing six runs and a career-high 13 hits in 6 1-3 innings. In his last start at Texas on Thursday, it appeared Floyd was about to turn it around after a strong seven-inning victory over the Rangers, but Floyd was in trouble from the start Tuesday.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen came in optimistic after a strong start from Jake Peavy in a 5-1 win over the Royals.

"It's kind of weird," Guillen said. "This ballclub plays like a champ one night and 24 hours later we don't know. I'm confused a lot. I expect every time I come to the park to play the game like we played yesterday. We haven't been consistent and when you're not consistent a lot of bad things could happen."

David DeJesus led off the game with a double and scored on Billy Butler's double-play grounder.

Jason Kendall led off the second inning with a walk and Aviles and Mitch Maier followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases. Chris Getz followed with a bloop RBI single to left, but the Royals left the bases full as Floyd retired the next three batters in order.

The Royals had the bases loaded with no outs in the third, but failed to score. Aviles hit a sharp grounder to Konerko at first, who stepped on the bag and then threw home to Pierzynski, who tagged out Jose Guillen. Maier flied out to center to end the inning. The Royals left six on base in the first three innings.

Hochevar got some insurance in the seventh. Getz led off with a single, one out later, Podsednik tripled and scored on Butler's single. Guillen followed with his eighth homer of the season to put the Royals up 6-1. Alberto Callaspo chased Floyd with a single.

"I felt like I was throwing the ball pretty well, but that inning happened real quick," Floyd said. "I feel like my mind, my stuff, everything is right there. I'm just trying to put two together and work from there. I felt like I was getting into a pretty good groove and it just went the other way." In the third inning, Juan Pierre bunted for a single and Gordon Beckham followed with a walk. Pierre and Beckham pulled off a double steal, and Pierre ended up scoring on Kendall's errant throw to third.

Pierzynski's home run, his first of the season, came in the seventh.

NOTES: Ozzie Guillen managed his 1,000th game for the White Sox. ... Before the game, the Royals placed OF Rick Ankiel on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right quad. The Royals plan on calling up 1B Kila Ka'aihue from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday. He hit .304 with seven homers in 23 games with Omaha.