Olivo's homer lifts Royals past Sox; Richard can't get out of the 4th

The White Sox were thinking big finish to their road trip before taking the field Sunday at Kansas City.

"We can have a good trip," Sox pitching coach Don Cooper told WSCR 670-AM before the game, "or we can have a really good trip based on this game."

Using that criteria, go ahead and mark it down as a good trip.

For the second straight day, the Sox just couldn't muster enough offense and the Royals provided just enough, taking advantage of some seeing-eye hits against Clayton Richard to finish the weekend series with a 6-3 victory.

The loss dropped the Sox into third place, a half-game behind Minnesota, who beat Detroit on Sunday. The Sox, though, remain just 21/2 games behind the Tigers in the AL Central.

"A good road trip," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "The last couple of days we couldn't get anything going offensively."

It looked like they might not need much behind Richard (3-2), who looked sharp early on. But a fateful fourth inning in which the young lefty gave up a couple of doubles and a couple of doinks to turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 deficit proved the difference.

"It's hard to describe the feeling when you make good pitches and they get hit," said Richard, who lasted just 32/3 innings and gave up 4 runs and 8 hits. "It's out of your control."

Richard went up against the Royals' Brian Bannister in a rematch of a May 29 game in which the Sox cruised to an 11-2 victory.

This time, though, Bannister (6-6) got the better end of the deal, stopping a personal four-game losing skid in the process.

"Bannister threw the ball pretty good," Guillen said. "Richard seemed like he was cruising real nice and all of a sudden a couple of cheap hits, the ones that hurt the most."

The White Sox' offensive highlight was provided by Jermaine Dye.

Perhaps stinging from not being selected to the all-star team, Dye took it out on reliever Jamey Wright in the eighth inning, blasting a monster, 434-foot shot to center, giving him 20 home runs to go along with 51 RBI.

The lone Sox representative at the All-Star Game will be pitcher Mark Buehrle (8-2), who will make his fourth appearance and his first at Busch Stadium, which is near his hometown of St. Charles, Mo.

"Any time you get to go, being in the clubhouse with all the superstars, it's still to this day - I'm kind of in shock," Buehrle told mlb.com.

"I mean I'm a kid from St. Charles who dreamed about playing in the major leagues, and here I am in the locker room with all these guys."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Mike Spellman's game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>Poor Richard:</b> These haven't been the best of times for Clayton Richard, who lasted just 32/3 innings, fell to 3-2 and failed to register a quality start for the seventh straight time.</p> <p class="News"><b>They're halfway there:</b> The Sox began the second half of their season Sunday three games above .500 at 42-39. They were 45-36 after 81 games last year. </p> <p class="News"><b>Grade: </b>C. Oh, what might have been. Imagine starting the final week of the first half with a nine-game winning streak and series against Cleveland and Minnesota on the horizon. Instead, the Sox get today off to regroup and shake off back-to-back losses to the Royals.</p>