White Sox go to 11 … all in one inning

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Javier Vazquez didn't swing a bat during the White Sox' 11-run fifth, but he enjoyed watching the inning more than anyone.

Jermaine Dye, Danny Richar and Josh Fields homered during the big inning, which provided more than enough offense for the White Sox starter as his team beat the Kansas City Royals 11-3 on Monday night.

"It makes my life a little bit easier out there," said Vazquez, who worked 8 innings and struck out a season high 13. "The guys did an outstanding job that inning to get some runs. Josh is going to be a great hitter -- he's already shown what he can do. Richar is an exciting player. We're happy to have them both."

The Sox, who sent 14 men to the plate, had its biggest inning since an 11-run third at St. Louis on June 20 last year. It was the most runs in an inning off Kansas City since an 11-run first at Cleveland on Aug. 13 last year and was 1 shy of the club record.

Richar also tripled during the inning, which included 2 doubles, 4 singles, 1 intentional walk and 2 wild pitches. Darin Erstad grounded out twice for two of the outs.

Kansas City led 2-0 before Kyle Davies gave up Richar's leadoff homer, Fields' 2-run double and Dye's 3-run homer, which put the Sox ahead 6-2.

"It was a wild game, kind of a weird inning," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We swung the bats good that inning and that's the reason we beat them. I don't think I've ever seen that."

Brandon Duckworth allowed Juan Uribe's RBI double, Richar's run-scoring triple, Alex Cintron's sacrifice fly and Fields' 2-run homer to complete the outburst.

"We just saw the ball good that inning," Dye said. "Guys came up with a lot of big hits for us. We haven't had too many innings like that this year. It's good to see us do something like that. After that inning, Javier went out and pitched like it was a zero-zero game."

The 13 strikeouts by Vazquez (13-8) were 1 shy of his career high. He allowed 2 runs and 5 hits without a walk, retiring 21 of the last 23 batters he faced after Alex Gordon homered in the second.

"My fastball was pretty good tonight and my off-speed pitches were good," Vazquez said. "The most important thing is to command your pitches, throw strikes and be aggressive, and I think I was doing that."

Every starter but Erstad had a hit for the White Sox. Cintron and Richar had 3 each.