White Sox get hot early, beat Royals to open twin bill

Gavin Sheets delivered a two-run single in a five-run first inning and Elvis Andrus had two hits and two RBIs to lead the Chicago White Sox past the visiting Kansas City Royals 6-2 on Tuesday in the first game of a doubleheader.

A hot start put the White Sox (56-88) well on their way to stopping a two-game losing streak. The first five Chicago batters reached base against Royals starter Brady Singer.

Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada grounded consecutive RBI singles to open the scoring. Sheets drove home a pair of runs two batters after Moncada, and Andrus capped the rally with a run-scoring forceout.

Kansas City (44-101) was unable to recover en route to its fifth straight defeat. The Royals have lost at least five games in a row six times this season.

Right-hander Dylan Cease pitched five innings of one-run ball to earn the win for Chicago. Cease (7-7) scattered four hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. It marked Cease's highest strikeout total since he fanned nine Minnesota Twins on July 22, a span of nine starts.

Kansas City got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning, as Edward Olivares hit a two-out RBI double to drive home Bobby Witt Jr., who opened the inning with one of his three hits. Witt also walked, reaching base in each of his four plate appearances.

Singer (8-11) lost for the third time in four starts. He allowed six runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings with two walks and two strikeouts.

Singer limited the White Sox to two hits in the second through fifth innings before being chased from the game on Andrus' RBI single in the sixth that made it 6-1 Chicago.

Bryan Shaw, Lane Ramsey and Gregory Santos combined on 3 2/3 innings of one-run relief with six strikeouts for the White Sox.

Olivares collected his second hit and RBI against Ramsey in the eighth.

Tim Anderson added two hits for Chicago as the White Sox took a 6-5 lead in the season series with the Royals.

White Sox assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson was ejected in the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes.