Kansas City Royals offense breaks out for four homers and stops slide in Chicago

When they got to two strikes, Kansas City Royals hitters had the opposing pitcher right where they wanted Wednesday night.

The first five runs of the game were driven in by Royals batters with two-strike counts, including a first-inning sacrifice fly, a two-out RBI single and a pair of home runs.

The Royals smacked four home runs on their way to a 9-1 win over the Chicago White Sox in the second game of the three-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago. The win snapped a four-game losing streak, evened the series at one game apiece, and it set up a rubber match on Thursday night.

Three of the four Royals home runs were launched on pitches delivered with two-strike counts. The Royals also had five two-out RBIs and hit 3 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

The Royals (46-60) got home runs from Salvador Perez (2 for 4), Edward Olivares, Michael A. Taylor (2 for 4) and Ryan O’Hearn. Perez matched his single-season career high for home runs in a season with his 27th. He hit 27 homers in both the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Whit Merrifield, who had a 12-game hit streak snapped on Tuesday, went 3 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored. Nicky Lopez went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.

“We’re coming to the ballpark to compete,” Perez said. “Sometimes we do like tonight. Sometimes not like (Tuesday), only one run. That’s part of the game. The thing we have to keep in mind is compete and play hard every night.”

In the previous four games of the road trip, the Royals scored a total of six runs. They scored six in the first four innings against White Sox starter Lucas Giolito, and they scored in each of the first four innings.

“It was kind of one of those days,” Merrifield said. “We had good approaches, good at-bats, facing a guy that we’re pretty familiar with. We’ve seen Giolito a lot, so we’re pretty aware of his stuff. There’s some benefit to that as a hitter. Guys just had good at-bats up and down today. I wish I could tell you why. It’s just one of those days where things were going right.”

Last week at Kauffman Stadium in his most recent start, Giolito held the Royals to one run, four hits and one walk in six innings. He struck out seven, and the Royals didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning.

Wednesday night, the Royals got into the scoring column early with a run in the first inning against Giolito.

Two of the first three batters, Merrifield and Perez, singled to put some traffic on the bases. Merrifield stole third and then scored on a O’Hearn sacrifice fly which gave the Royals their first lead of their road trip.

They tacked on two more runs in the second after Giolito got two outs and two strikes. Olivares pulled a 3-2 changeup down the left-field line and over the wall for a solo homer. That blast gave Olivares two homers in his past three games since being recalled while the club was in Toronto.

The next batter, Lopez, reached on an infield single. He alertly advanced to second base on a pitch in the dirt that caromed just far enough away from White Sox catcher Zack Collins. Merrifield then drove in Lopez with a single up the middle on another two-strike pitch.

The hits kept coming in the third. Following a leadoff single by Carlos Santana, Perez crushed his 27th homer of the season — a two-run smash on a 3-2 fastball — for his fifth round-tripper against the White Sox in 15 games this season.

The Royals ran Giolito’s pitch count up to 68 through the first three innings.

Taylor started the fourth inning off with a solo homer, the third of the night for the Royals. They led 6-0 after the fourth inning.

“The offense was relentless with those kind of innings where you get the shutdown, then come back and put more pressure on,” Matheny said. “We’ve got the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but we also had guys that were getting on base ahead of them, making things happen, good baserunning. Today was a little bit of everything.”

Royals starting pitcher Carlos Hernández allowed just one run, two hits and two walks. The lone run he allowed came on a Jose Abreu solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. Hernández (3-1) struck out six.

In his last two starts, which both came against the White Sox, Hernández has allowed one run, six hits and three walks with 10 strikeouts in 11 innings.

Wednesday night, he used his changeup frequently and effectively. He threw that second-most of all his pitches (25 percent of the time). He got White Sox hitters to swing at that pitch 12 times, and nine times they either swung and missed or fouled that pitch off. All three that were put in play were outs (two groundouts, one lineout).

“The coaching staff always tells me to trust it,” Hernández said of the changeup with assistant strength and conditioning coach Luis Perez translating. “I was in the bullpen and gained a little confidence with it. It was feeling good, and I used it.”

Josh Staumont, Jake Brentz, Domingo Tapia (on his birthday) and Ervin Santana each pitched one scoreless inning or relief.