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Sox score 11 in fifth to rout Royals

Sep 18, 2007 - 4:40 AM By Pat Madden PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- It took 24 games, but the Chicago White Sox escaped the basement of the American League Central Division.

Javier Vazquez struck out a season-high 13 batters and the White Sox scored 11 times in the fifth inning to beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-3, on Monday.

Vazquez (13-8), who won for the second time this season and the sixth time of his career against the Royals, allowed two runs and five hits.

"It's great as a starting pitcher to get that many runs," Vazquez said. "It makes your life a little bit easier out there. It really helped.

"The fastball was pretty good tonight. My offspeed pitches were good. The most important thing is to have command of your pitches and throwing strikes and be aggressive and for the most part I was doing that tonight."

The White Sox, who had been in last place since August 24, overtook the Royals in a big way, scoring a season-high runs in the fifth, sending 14 batters to the plate and pounded out nine hits against Royals starter Kyle Davies. It was the most runs in a inning for Chicago since it scored 11 in the third inning against St. Louis on June 20, 2006.

"How about 11 runs in one inning?" White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I don't think I've seen that before, scoring 11 runs in an inning and not scoring any more."

"Chicago has a veteran team," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "If you don't pitch well against them, they're going to to do damage regardless of where they're at."

Josh Fields and Danny Richar were the hitting stars of the inning. Fields recorded a double and a home run and drove in four runs, while Richar homered and tripled with two RBI. Alex Cintron also collected three hits for Chicago.

"He can be good," said Jermaine Dye about Fields. "He obviously has a lot of power. When he learns his swing and what pitchers are trying to do to him, he's going to be a pretty good hitter."

The Royals opened up a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Alex Gordon's 15th home run of the season, scoring Ross Gload ahead of him.

Davies (2-6) lost for the sixth time in his last seven starts, allowing six runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.

"I don't know if the home run rattled him, but he started pitching behind (after that)," said Royals manager Bell of Davies. "It happened quick."

"I felt fine through the first four innings," Davies said. "I came out in the fifth and they hit everything I threw up there. I never got to a three-ball count in the fifth except on an intentional walk."

Gload collected two doubles for the Royals, who lost for the 10th time in their last 12 games.