Rodon razor sharp again in White Sox's 3-0 win over Royals

In April, Carlos Rodon strongly stated his case for American League Pitcher of the Month honors.

Not only did the White Sox's left-hander go 4-0 with a 0.72 ERA while holding opposing batters to a .085 (7-for-82) batting average, Rodon threw a no-hitter against the Indians on April 14.

Those are some scintillating statistics, but Rodon lost out to the Yankees' Gerrit Cole, who went 4-1 with a 1.43 ERA to go with 62 strikeouts in 37⅔ innings.

Maybe he used the slight as motivation in his first start of May Friday night at Kansas City.

Or, maybe a healthy Rodon is just a really good pitcher.

In the Sox's 3-0 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, Rodon improved to 5-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.58 after allowing 5 singles over 6 innings to go with 8 strikeouts.

"He focuses on the next start," manager Tony La Russa said. "He doesn't dwell on what I did. They add up to a real special season for him, for us, and that's what he's done.

"He's giving credit to (pitching coach) Ethan (Katz). They really worked on getting it together and he worked all spring very slowly. He's got it and he's taking it out there every time. He's not settling for the last one, which is human nature a lot of times."

Rodon is the first White Sox starter to go 5-0 through his first 5 starts since Chris Sale in 2016 and his ERA is the lowest by a Sox starter to begin a season since it was first tracked in 1913.

"It's definitely rewarding," Rodon said. "I'm just going to say it again, I just want to keep going throughout this whole season. I'm looking forward to my next start. It's been fun."

Rodon's fastball was impressive again in the Sox's shutout win. Kansas City had only 1 hit off the heater and the other 4 basehits were off changeups.

"The fastball was good," Rodon said. "It helps when the fastball's like that. I can get away with some mistakes and just keep going with it."

Zack Collins homered in the fifth inning, Adam Eaton had a run-scoring single and Jose Abreu added an RBI double.

Before the White Sox beat the Royals, La Russa revisited Wednesday's 1-0 loss in 10 innings at Cincinnati.

Getting a free runner on second base to open the 10th, La Russa went with relief pitcher Liam Hendriks when he could have used Jose Abreu.

After the game, La Russa admitted he didn't know the rule about not having to use pitchers as base runners.

"I'm glad I didn't try to BS my way through it," La Russa said. "I just didn't know it and I admitted it. I've had a few people contact me in the game that were not aware, either. I'm sure a lot were, but I admit I didn't know and it's a good rule. A very good rule."