White Sox 6, Royals 4: A win, you say?

The White Sox mercifully ended their five-game losing streak with a solid win in Kansas City over the Royals that almost slipped away but, for the first time in what seems like ages, did not. It’ll bring them up to 54-86 on the season, and sends the Royals back down to 53 games below (!) at 44-97.

The pitching matchup wasn’t exactly marquee, and both sides were active on the bases early, but untimely hitting and some double play help for each defense kept the scoreboard clean through three innings, and none of the early offense amounted to much of a threat. The Sox finally got to Jordan Lyles their second time through the lineup, though. Andrew Vaughn hit a line-drive single with one out, moved to second on a ground out from Yoán Moncada, and promptly scored when Gavin Sheets scooped his eighth double of the season.

Whatever joy Sheets might have sparked was short-lived, however, as the Royals similarly got to Toussaint the very next inning. He managed to retire the first two hitters of the inning before Michael Massey, whose name I always seem to be typing whenever the Royals are involved, drew a walk. A batter later, it was a 2-1 game thanks to former Cub Nelson Velasquez.

That was all the damage Touki allowed, though, as he managed to make it through six innings for the first time since July 19, and notching his first quality start as a member of the White Sox. He only generated six swings-and-misses the entire night, but Royals hitters just couldn’t do anything to square up his splitter or curveball, which he threw about 55% of the time on the whole. Of the 14 balls in play he allowed, just four of them were at 95 mph or above, an excellent rate.

Toussaint also left the game in line for the win, because shockingly, the White Sox offense struck back before Touki completed the sixth. Luis Robert Jr. got the juices flowing against Lyles with a one-out double, and Vaughn proceeded to do something he hasn’t done all year: Hit a home run on back-to-back days.

Vaughn wound up just a triple short of the cycle, his second consecutive three-hit night, and the fourth time he’s done it since August 13. Speaking of hot streaks, hey, look at that, entering tonight, Yoán Moncada entered tonight with a .948 OPS over his last 23 games. That number got higher after he took the plate following Vaughn’s homer.

That was against Tucker Davidson, who had entered the game following Vaughn’s home run. The next inning, the Sox tacked on more when Oscar Colás led off the next inning by showing that lefties aren’t so hard to hit after all.

Lane Ramsey held down the fort in an inning of work in relief of Toussaint, but Aaron Bummer couldn’t say the same, as the lefty allowed Kansas City to make it interesting courtesy of a pinch-hit, two-run blast by Edward Olivares in the home half of the eighth.

Fortunately, the Sox took that run right back in the top of the ninth on trio of singles, back-to-back-to-back, from Korey Lee, Elvis Andrus — who strung together his first four-hit game as a member of the organization — and Andrew Benintendi.

Just 24 hours after last night’s embarrassing conclusion, Gregory Santos once again found himself in a pressure spot, but this time, it was in the eighth inning, recording the final two outs of that frame in relief of Bummer. He was not allowed to go for the two-inning save, as he has been at times this year. That duty went to Brian Shaw, who managed to handle things without incident for his first White Sox save — and the merciful end to a simply brutal five-game losing streak for the club.

This won’t be the last time the Sox will see the Royals this season, but they are bidding adieu to another year at Kaufmann stadium, and as we always seem to say, thankfully so. The team will be off tomorrow afternoon, as they traverse the midwest in advance of a three-gamer with the Tigers in Detroit this weekend.

[The sausage fingers of editor Brett Ballantini + inordinately sensitive Chorus editing system at SBN deleted Malachi Hayes’ delicately-crafted Six Pack of Stats tonight. All apologies to Hayes and our faithful Six Pack-crackers. We still have the Magic Number, however.]

Magic Number: 26
Yoán Moncada played 26 games in August, his most in a month since May 2021. Coincidentally, he’s also running an OPS near .900 since then. Health is a wonderful thing!