Dunn hits home run No. 400, but Sox lose to Royals 9-4
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White Sox designated hitter Adam Dunn rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run Saturday during the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. Associated Press |
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Adam Dunn and Kevin Youkilis were in no mood to celebrate their milestone hits.
Dunn belted a two-run shot for his 400th career homer, but the Chicago White Sox lost 9-4 at the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
"It's just about the worst-case scenario, getting it like this," Dunn said. "We've played two bad games. Tonight was a disaster from the get-go. Obviously, I would have wanted it to come in a win."
Chicago trailed 5-2 before Dunn drove a 2-2 pitch from Tim Collins over the wall in left-center in the eighth. Youkilis, who singled with one out for his 1,000th career hit, was aboard for Dunn's major league-best 35th homer of the season.
"It's great to have milestones, but you want to win," Youkilis said. "One thousand hits is great, but it's all about winning for me personally."
Kansas City responded with four runs in the bottom half. Billy Butler, who finished with three hits and three RBIs, singled in Alcides Escobar before Mike Moustakas hit a three-run drive to right for his 19th homer.
All four runs were charged to Brett Myers, who gave up four hits.
"A 5-4 lead is by no means a comfortable situation," Butler said. "Nobody wants to be pitching with that tight of a lead. Sometimes you have to do it. We have to do it enough. We've had to win enough tight ones, so it was good to have a cruise win."
Dunn is one of 11 active players with 400 homers and No. 50 to reach the mark overall. The burly slugger and Paul Konerko are the first teammates to reach 400 career homers in the same season.
"It got us close," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "It's an accomplishment — 400, that's a lot of home runs."
White Sox starter Jake Peavy (9-9) gave up five runs, two unearned, and nine hits in 5 1-3 innings, dropping to 0-6 with a 5.52 ERA in his past seven starts against the Royals. He is 1-5 with a 5.52 ERA in six starts at Kauffman Stadium.
"It was ugly," Peavy said. "We just didn't play well. It was a tough night. I felt awfully good tonight. When you feel that good and give up that many runs it's really frustrating. The final score, 9-4 you look at that score and you know how different that game could have been.
"They had swinging bunts, balls off the plate, lots of things that bounced their way. When you make your pitches and don't get your outs, it's a run of bad luck. We just have to shake it off and come back tomorrow."
AL Central-leading Chicago remained 1˝ games ahead of Detroit, which lost 3-2 to Baltimore.
Moustakas finished with four RBIs for the Royals, who have won four of five. Escobar had four infield singles, scored three runs and had his team-leading 24th steal.
Butler, who homered Friday, was hit by Peavy in the first inning.
"I think we all know what that was," Butler said. "I'm not going to beat around the bush on that. Maybe I did a little excessive last night. Professionals hit me below the belt and that's the professional way to do it and move on. I felt like I won today. We're going to leave it I professionally got back even."
Alex Gordon also had three hits for Kansas City, including his American League-leading 39th double. Eric Hosmer contributed a solo home run in the sixth as the Royals rapped out 15 hits overall.
The White Sox committed a season-high four errors. They entered ranked second in the majors with a .988 fielding percentage. It was just their ninth multi-error game this season.
The Royals took advantage of miscues by catcher Tyler Flowers, right fielder Alex Rios and second baseman Gordon Beckham to push across two unearned runs in the third. Butler had an RBI single and scored on Moustakas' base hit.
Bruce Chen (9-10) held the White Sox scoreless until Dunn doubled and scored on Konerko's 20th homer in the sixth. It was Konerko's 41st career home run against Kansas City.
Konerko has connected in back-to-back games since coming off the concussion-disabled list Friday.
Chen allowed five hits, struck out five and walked one in six innings.
NOTES: Royals 2B Chris Getz, who broke his left thumb Friday, had season-ending surgery with two pins placed in the thumb. There is an eight-week recovery time, and Getz is expected to be at 100 percent by spring training. Manager Ned Yost said Johnny Giavotella, who was recalled from Triple-A Omaha, would get the majority of the playing time at second with Getz out. .... White Sox CF Alejandro De Aza was not the lineup with cramps in his lower back. Dewayne Wise replaced him. ... CF Lorenzo Cain hit leadoff for the first time. Cain is the eighth player Yost has batted first this season. ... RHP Jeremy Guthrie takes a 15-inning scoreless streak into Sunday's start against the White Sox, who will start rookie LHP Jose Quintana.
