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White Sox edge Royals

Kansas  City, MO  (SportsNetwork.com) -  Paul Konerko's  two-run homer  in the 
fifth  helped the Chicago White Sox erase an early five-run deficit and defeat 
the Kansas City Royals, 7-6, in the opener of a three-game set. 

Alexei  Ramirez had  a three-run homer and  four RBI and Dayan Viciedo added a 
solo shot for Chicago, which snapped a two-game losing streak. 

Zach  Putnam  (2-0) earned  the win  in relief and  Jake Petricka recorded the 
final two outs in the ninth to nail down his first career save. 

Royals  starter Jason Vargas (4-2) yielded seven runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 
innings in the loss. 

Eric  Hosmer finished with  three RBI and Lorenzo Cain knocked in two runs for 
the Royals, who had won two straight entering the contest. 

Kansas  City jumped out  of the gate with a five-run first inning, but Chicago 
hung around thanks to the long ball. 

Adam  Eaton  grounded into  a bunt force  out after Marcus  Semien led off the 
third  with  a single to center.  Gordon Beckham walked and Ramirez plated the 
pair with a blast to left that cut the deficit to 5-3. 

Viciedo  cut  the deficit  in half with  a solo  shot to left  to lead off the 
fourth. 

Hosmer  got the run  back in the home half of the fourth with an RBI single to 
right that plated Alcides Escobar. 

Chicago,  however,  completed the comeback with  a three-run fifth to take the 
lead for good. 

Ramirez  drove in  Eaton with a groundout  to first, then Adam Dunn walked and 
Konerko  hammered his second homer of the season into center to give the Whit
Sox a 7-6 edge. 

"I  don't  get too  mad about a  lot of  things, but you  know, coughing it up 
halfway  through  the fifth  inning is not  good enough to  get it done," said 
Vargas. "I coughed it up for us tonight." 

Ronald  Belisario pitched  two  scoreless innings  in relief  to  set up  Matt 
Lindstrom  for the  save. Lindstrom, however, allowed a leadoff single to Nori 
Aoki and committed an error on Escobar's sacrifice bunt. 

Lindstrom appeared to injure his left leg on the play and Scott Downs relieved 
the  closer  with two  men on  and none out.  The left-handed specialist Downs 
struck  out  Hosmer and White Sox  manager Robin Ventura chose to use Petricka 
for the final two outs of the game. 

Petricka  picked  off pinch-runner  Jarrod Dyson and  then induced a groundout 
from Billy Butler to end the game. 

Earlier,  Aoki singled  up the middle and Escobar followed with a bloop single 
up  the middle that  Beckham allowed to drop right through his legs and bounce 
into center. 

The  official scorer ruled  the play a hit, then Hosmer drove Aoki and Escobar 
in with a double off the base of the right-field wall. 

"When you get out there in the first inning you just try to get settled," said 
Ventura.  "The  Hosmer ball was hit  hard but everything else was a groundball 
that found its way in there." 

Butler  laced a  single to center that  scored Hosmer to give the Royals a 3-0 
advantage. 

After  a  walk from  Alex Gordon, Salvador  Perez flied out  to center for the 
first out of the frame which allowed Butler and Gordon to move up a base. 

Cain proceeded to knock a single up the middle to plate the two and the Royals 
took a commanding 5-0 advantage after an inning of play. 

                                   Game Notes 

All  nine White Sox starters recorded a hit ... Chicago starter Scott Carroll 
was  roughed up for  six runs on nine hits in four innings ... Gordon's run in 
the first was the 500th of his career. No. 501 will tie David DeJesus for 10th 
in  Royals history ... KC was 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position, while 
Chicago was 1-for-8. 

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