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Chen, Royals beat White Sox to win series

Jul 6, 2011 - 11:14 PM Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Jeff Francoeur drove in two runs, Eric Hosmer belted a solo home run and the Kansas City Royals took the rubber match of a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox with a 4-1 win.

Bruce Chen (5-2) threw six-plus solid innings for the Royals, who have won three of their last four games. The left-hander allowed just one run on four hits but walked three batters.

"Things are starting to go our way a little bit," Hosmer said. "You have to tip your hat to Bruce. He found a way to win."

Adam Dunn walked to bring in the lone run for the White Sox, who failed to hit the .500 mark and fell to 43-45 on the year. They had won five of their last seven games entering the series finale on Wednesday.

Chicago's Edwin Jackson (5-7) yielded four runs on eight hits over seven innings to take the loss.

"At the end of the day, my job is to keep the game close," Jackson said. "Regardless of how the game starts I have to keep the team within striking distance."

Chris Getz started the game with a walk and then used his speed, stealing second and advancing to third on Melky Cabrera's single up the middle. Alex Gordon followed with a double-play grounder, but not before Getz crossed home for the game's first run.

Hosmer led off the second with a homer to make it a 2-0 game, while Gordon scored in the fourth off of Francoeur's bloop hit into center to push the KC margin to three.

Francoeur lifted a sacrifice fly to the warning track in the sixth to send home Gordon -- who began the inning with a base hit -- but the ChiSox got one back during the bottom of the frame.

Chen, who retired the first nine batters he saw, began to have some control issues in the sixth. Three straight singles from Alex Rios, Gordon Beckham and Juan Pierre loaded the bases with no outs.

After getting Brent Morel to pop out, Chen walked Dunn to bring in Pierre. But the starter avoided further damage by striking out Paul Konerko and inducing a Carlos Quentin pop out.

The Kansas City bullpen finished out the game as Greg Holland tossed two scoreless innings and Joakim Soria set down the side in order in the ninth to record his 15th save.

Game Notes

It was Chen's first win against the White Sox...Chicago came into the series having won seven of its last eight three-game series...The White Sox left five runners on base...Gordon and Hosmer combined for half of Kansas City's eight hits.