Royals 4 - 5 White Sox
Final
  for this game

Royals lose, still a game behind Tigers

Sep 28, 2014 - 6:31 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - Josh Phegley homered twice to help the Chicago White Sox to a 5-4 win over Kansas City to keep the Royals a game behind the lead in the AL Central.

The Royals already locked up a playoff berth, but a win coupled with a Detroit loss on Sunday to Minnesota will force a tie for the division crown. Because of Oakland's loss to Texas, Kansas City is guaranteed a home game in the wild card round if it does not win the division.

If the Royals and Tigers end with identical records, a tiebreaker would be played Monday at Detroit to determine the division winner.

"It's all going to come down to tomorrow," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Minnesota is doing a great job playing Detroit. We've got (Yordano) Ventura on the mound, hopefully we can squeak out a win and Minnesota can have some magic one more time."

Jose Abreu hit a two-run homer and Alexei Ramirez drove in a run for Chicago, which snapped a four-game losing streak.

John Danks (11-11) again kept the Royals off-balance, limiting them to two runs on five hits and two walks over seven innings. Danks improved to 7-0 in 16 career starts against KC.

Danny Duffy (9-12) was charged with the loss after he allowed four runs on five hits over two-plus innings.

Salvador Perez homered, while Nori Aoki, Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas each knocked in a run for the Royals.

The White Sox honored longtime slugger Paul Konerko prior to the game with a ceremony for the retiring first baseman. Konerko, who played 16 seasons with Chicago, is a six-time All-Star and ranks second on the franchise home run list (432) and third in hits (2,292).

"You see people have those ceremonies and all that. You don't ever think you're one of them," Konerko said. "It's all mind boggling to me, the whole thing."

Adam Eaton walked to lead off the home first, stole second and scored on Ramirez's single to center. Abreu then stepped in and launched his 36th homer of the season for a 3-0 Chicago lead after one.

Phegley deposited his second homer of the season, a solo shot to left, with one out in the second.

Kansas City pushed a run across in the third. After a pair of one-out singles from Moustakas and Alcides Escobar, Aoki drove Moustakas in with a groundout.

Perez knocked a solo homer to left center with one out in the seventh to make it a 4-2 game.

Phegley then got the run back with another homer in the seventh.

Ronald Belisario came on in the eighth for Chicago and walked Escobar before allowing back-to-back singles from Aoki and Cain. Escobar scored on Cain's hit, then Eric Surkamp rolled a double play off the bat of Eric Hosmer. Billy Butler grounded out to third to end the inning.

Jake Petricka walked Alex Gordon to begin the ninth and Javy Guerra came on in relief. Guerra got Perez to line out to center and Omar Infante to ground out which allowed Gordon to move up a base. Moustakas ripped a single into right to make it a one-run game, but Guerra induced a ground ball from Escobar to end the game and secure his first save.

Game Notes

Duffy entered the game with a 2-0 record in three starts against the White Sox ... Escobar has an eight-game hitting streak ... KC had won five of six coming into the game.






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