{"id":899544,"date":"2026-06-28T23:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/899544\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T23:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T23:19:25","slug":"chicago-white-sox-3-takeaways-from-kansas-city-royals-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/899544\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox: 3 takeaways from Kansas City Royals series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chicago White Sox wrapped up a productive homestand on a sour note on Sunday, losing 5-4 to the Kansas City Royals in front of 27,301 at Rate Field.<\/p>\n

Miguel Vargas had a two-run home run and scored twice in the defeat.<\/p>\n

The Sox had to settle for winning two of three in the series, their franchise-record 10th straight home series victory. With the loss and Cleveland\u2019s 6-5 win against the Seattle Mariners, the Sox (43-39) and Guardians (44-40) are tied for first place in the American League Central.<\/p>\n

Here are three series takeaways.<\/p>\n

1. Sox starter Anthony Kay\u2019s execution was just off.
\n\"ChicagoChicago White Sox starting pitcher Anthony Kay reacts after throwing a wild pitch during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Chicago, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

Anthony Kay felt like he was working from behind much of Sunday\u2019s outing, and the Royals took advantage.<\/p>\n

The left-hander allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits with two strikeouts and one walk in 3 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust wasn\u2019t getting ahead and just not doing a good job of winning leverage,\u201d Kay said. \u201cPitching behind in the count is never good.<\/p>\n

\u201cHard ones on the ground were going through the hole and the soft ones were finding grass. Just kind of one of those days where nothing was going right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lead flipped from one team to the other multiple times early.<\/p>\n

Vargas\u2019 two-run home run put the Sox ahead 2-1 in the first inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust continues to make really good swing decisions,\u201d manager Will Venable said of Vargas, who went 2-for-2 with two walks. \u201cI think some of these at-bats, one today he was (behind in the count) 0-2 to a walk there, just really impressive against really good arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago White Sox’s Miguel Vargas celebrates as he rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Chicago, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

The Royals took advantage of a fielding error by shortstop Colson Montgomery during a two-run second inning, going ahead 3-2.<\/p>\n

The Sox recaptured the lead in the bottom of the second on a two-out, two-run broken-bat single by Kyle Teel. Sam Antonacci and Vargas \u2014 who had doubled \u2014 scored to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.<\/p>\n

The Royals tied the score with an RBI double by Isaac Collins in the third inning. They went ahead 5-4 with an RBI double by Carter Jensen in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough day for Anthony,\u201d Venable said. \u201cThought there was not his best command. His stuff was OK, but not his best command. I thought a really nice job by the Royals with two-strike hitting, using the whole field, I thought they made it really tough on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offensively, the Sox went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those (overall offensively) where out of the gates you really like the at-bats,\u201d Venable said. \u201cCredit to the Royals\u2019 bullpen bouncing back and making it really tough on us. We couldn\u2019t get anything going.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. The two wins in the series for the Sox came in vastly different forms.
\n\"ChicagoChicago White Sox first baseman Jacob Gonzalez hits a game-winning walk-off single in the ninth inning of a game against the Kansas City Royals at Rate Field in Chicago on June 27, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Sox first baseman Jacob Gonzalez had never delivered a walk-off hit in his life.<\/p>\n

Not even as a little leaguer?<\/p>\n

\u201cNope,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez accomplished the feat Saturday, driving in the game-ending run with a single in the ninth inning to lift the Sox to a 2-1 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had walk-off groundouts or sac flies, but that was my first walk-off hit,\u201d Gonzalez said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It was the seventh walk-off of the season by the Sox, each accomplished by a different player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems fitting for our group,\u201d Venable said after Saturday\u2019s game. \u201cWe talk about every night, that we\u2019re getting contributions throughout the lineup, every guy that steps on the mound, it\u2019s coming from everywhere every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalez was one of the many Sox players contributing to Friday\u2019s 22-1 victory<\/a>. The rookie drove in five. Vargas also had five RBIs, while Tristan Peters knocked in six.<\/p>\n

According to Elias Sports Bureau, it was the second time since 1920 that the Sox had at least three players record five-plus RBIs. The other occasion came on April 23, 1955, at the Kansas City Athletics by Bob Nieman (seven RBIs), Sherm Lollar (five) and Minnie Mi\u00f1oso (five).<\/p>\n

3. The Sox will try to carry over home success on the road.
\n\"ChicagoChicago White Sox’s Miguel Vargas scores on a two-run single by Kyle Teel during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Chicago, Sunday, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo\/Nam Y. Huh)<\/p>\n

The Sox went 4-2 during the homestand, taking two of three in series against the Guardians and the Royals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found a lot of ways to win close games,\u201d Venable said. \u201cWe continue to play well at home, against divisional opponents. We love to see it. A couple (of games) out there maybe we could have got but even those were hard-fought games and tough ones. Just really happy with where the club is at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vargas summed up the homestand for the team as \u201cgreat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall we have been playing really good baseball, especially at home,\u201d Vargas said. \u201cAll the fans have been showing up and we feel the energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for us to go out there every day in that atmosphere and win baseball games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox are 28-14 at home. They\u2019ll look to build some momentum on the road, where they are 15-25. The Sox begin a three-game series Monday at Baltimore.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys have been great all homestand,\u201d Kay said, \u201cand hopefully we can continue to do that on the road this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago White Sox wrapped up a productive homestand on a sour note on Sunday, losing 5-4 to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":899545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[131487,197082,960,1274,5386,1818,216994,1284,27038,1822,5391,13250],"class_list":["post-899544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-american-league-central","tag-anthony-kay","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jacob-gonzalez","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-miguel-vargas","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-rate-field","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116830299088098480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}