The Chicago White Sox had a two-run lead in the seventh inning Saturday against the Kansas City Royals.
There were two outs, but the Royals had a runner on first and Salvador Perez, who had already homered twice in the game, was at the plate.
Reliever Craig Kimbrel preserved the lead by striking out Perez. The Sox got an insurance run in the eighth and held on to beat the Royals 10-7 in front of 18,800 at Kauffman Stadium.
“We made our pitches the first time through (getting a groundout),” Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal said of facing Perez. “Hung one the second time, he took us deep. And then made a really good pitch the third time through and he took us deep, so we were going to make sure he wasn’t going to beat us.
“We used his aggressiveness to get him out and it was a huge out. But there was no doubt we were being careful in the situation.”
The Sox won for the sixth time in eight games. But the Royals made them work for it.
“That was a hard game, man,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said.
The Sox built a 9-3 lead behind the hitting of Grandal and Luis Robert. Grandal went 3-for-3 with a two-run homer and four RBIs while Robert went 4-for-5 with a solo home run and three runs. Both homers came in the first. Robert’s solo blast served as the game’s first run and Grandal made it 3-0 with his 19th homer of the season.
José Abreu singled and double twice, giving him 501 career extra-base hits. He also drove in one run and scored three times. Romy González, making the first start of his major-league career, had his first RBI with a groundout in the fifth.
“We feed off each other,” Grandal said of the offense. “We’re definitely hunting out there, making sure that whenever we get into a situation we keep riding that wave as high as we can, so we can make the inning as long as we can. We’ve seen that every time we do that, good things happen.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re down by six or up by six, our mentality is to attack and make the pitcher work. I think we’ve fed off each other every time. Especially when you see Robert lead off an inning and all of a sudden we have men on second and third. We’re going to be on the attack, and it’s worked out.”
The Royals got back in the game with Perez leading the way.
He hit a two-run homer against Sox starter Reynaldo López in the third. His three-run homer off reliever Michael Kopech in the fifth was his 40th of the season and brought the Royals within 9-6.
Carlos Santana’s solo homer against Kopech in the sixth made it a two-run game.
Kimbrel has mostly been used in the eighth inning since being acquired in a trade with the Cubs, setting up Liam Hendriks. But the Sox called on him in the seventh Saturday with the possibility of facing Perez in mind.
“If somebody gets on base, Perez is up and Craig had to be the guy to face him,” La Russa said. “So a lot of theater to that inning and what Salvador did, those two homers, made that game a very tough one for us to win.
“You counted up and knew that Perez was (due up) fourth. (Kimbrel) was ready to pitch in the seventh. That was the inning of decision.”
Kimbrel struck out the first two batters. Nicky Lopez singled, bringing Perez to the plate as the tying run. Kimbrel struck him out in five pitches. The reliever was credited with the win.
The Sox added a run in the eighth with an RBI single from Andrew Vaughn. Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks retired the final six batters as the Sox extended their lead in the American League Central to 101/2 games.
“They had so much momentum with those two clutch home runs,” La Russa said. “But our guys kept cranking out at-bats. The kind of guts they’ve shown all season.
“They don’t get discouraged. They keep playing. It’s a championship trait. Fun to watch it.”
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