(AP) Eloy Jimenez launched a 471-foot home run, Reynaldo Lopez bounced back with six effective innings and the Chicago White Sox defeated the Kansas City Royals 5-2 on Sunday.
Yoan Moncada had four hits and an RBI for the White Sox, who lost the series opener but had back-to-back solid pitching performances to take the last two games.
The Royals are 0-6 in rubber games in 2019, continuing a streak that started early last season. Kansas City has lost 14 straight rubber games, dating to May 30, 2018, and is now 0-14-2 in its last 16 series.
A day after Lucas Giolito shut down the Royals in a 2-0 victory, Lopez (4-6) allowed one run and four hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out eight.
Lopez had been struggling recently, giving up 19 earned runs in his last 13 1/3 innings over his previous three starts.
Glenn Sparkman (1-2) gave up two earned runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Jimenez led off the second with the longest home run at Kauffman Stadium since Brandon Moss hit a 474-foot drive for the Royals against the Twins July 1, 2017. The White Sox added an unearned run later in the inning on Charlie Tilson’s double.
Jorge Soler hit a 445-foot shot homer in the fourth, snapping Kansas City’s 13-inning scoreless drought.
The White Sox got a run in each of the last three innings, on Moncada’s single that scored Tilson in the seventh, an eighth-inning double by Tim Anderson and an unearned run in the ninth.
