Royals beat White Sox on walk-off balk

The Kansas City Royals rallied from an early six-run deficit to earn a 7-6, walk-off win over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

Gregory Santos (2-2) balked in the winning run, blowing his fourth save of the season as the White Sox (53-86) dropped their fifth straight game.

Bobby Witt Jr. tied the game with a one-out RBI double before Santos failed to come set while pitching to Edward Olivares, forcing home Maikel Garcia.

Jackson Kowar (1-0) struck out one in a scoreless ninth for his first major league win.

The White Sox built a 5-0 lead with a pair of second-inning long balls. Yoan Moncada’s two-run shot to deep center opened the scoring. Korey Lee later smacked his first big-league homer, a three-run blast over the left field bullpen, to snap an 0-for-23 slump.

In the third, Andrew Vaughn’s one-out solo shot to center increased Chicago’s lead to 6-0. Vaughn had three of Chicago’s 13 hits.

The White Sox pounded Brady Singer for six runs on nine hits and a walk over five innings.

Struggling to command his slider, Dylan Cease surrendered extra-base hits in four straight innings, including three home runs. In 5 1/3 innings, he allowed five runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.

MJ Melendez’s two-out RBI single in the third got the Royals on the board before three solo home runs cut their deficit to 6-4.

Nelson Velazquez went deep leading off the fourth for his eighth homer in 22 games with Kansas City. It was his 11th home run of the season.

With two outs in the inning, Chicago-area native Michael Massey added a solo shot of his own. Massey is a career .389 (21-for-54) hitter with four home runs in 54 career at-bats against the White Sox.

Melendez added a two-out homer in the fifth.

The Royals won consecutive games for the first time since Aug. 3-4.

Sidelined since Saturday with right quad cramping, Luis Robert Jr. pinch-hit in the seventh.

The White Sox have lost 16 of their last 22 games.

—Field Level Media