Floyd can't pitch over bad break

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Jake Peavy got himself into some big trouble during Saturday's start against the Royals.

But after allowing 3 runs in the first inning, Peavy settled down and nearly became the first White Sox starting pitcher to throw a complete game this season.

On Sunday, Gavin Floyd was not able to overcome adversity.

Staked to an early 2-0 lead at Kauffman Stadium, Floyd caught a bad break in the fourth inning when Mike Aviles led off with a single that should have been a routine flyout to either Juan Pierre in left field or Alex Rios in right.

Instead, the ball dropped in and Kansas City followed with 3 more singles and wound up taking a 3-2 lead.

Appearing to still be rattled in the fifth inning, Floyd (1-4) allowed 2 more runs on 3 hits and the Sox went on to a 5-3 loss.

"No matter what happens in the field you just try to keep going after them," Floyd said of Aviles' fluke hit. "The next guy (David DeJesus) got a basehit and things just kind of went from there.

"I tried to keep making pitches, trying to get double plays or trying to get groundballs so we could try to turn double plays. I just felt like everything was just going away from our fielders."

Losing to the last-place Royals for the second time in 12 days, Floyd allowed 5 runs on 10 hits in 6 innings.

"Good pitchers overcome," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Everybody thought we should have caught (Aviles' flyball); it stayed in the air long enough.

"In the meanwhile, that's one hitter. After that, he gave up a few basehits and everything came out of hand. Good pitchers overcome those."

Floyd again had trouble throwing effective off-speed pitches.

"I think he threw only two or three breaking balls for a strike," Guillen said. "You're not going to win that many games doing that."