KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Seth Lugo retired 14 straight batters in his first career complete game as the Kansas City Royals rallied past the Chicago White Sox for a 4-1 win and series sweep on Sunday.
Lugo (12-4) surrendered one run while striking out six on 103 pitches. He allowed an infield hit to Tommy Pham leading off the game before retiring the next 14 batters.
“The efficiency, the strike throwing, all that was phenomenal,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “I’m just happy that he got, not only the complete game, but the win.”
Lugo said he's been trying to complete a game for a long time.
“Over my career I’ve always said I want to play every inning in the game," he said. "Finally got to do that today."
Nicky Lopez was hit with a pitch leading off the sixth and scored on Pham’s two-out single, breaking the scoreless tie.
In the eighth, Hunter Renfroe’s single scored Bobby Witt Jr. to break a 1-1 tie as the Royals collected five hits, scoring three runs against reliever John Brebbia (0-5).
“I was just looking for something up in the zone a little bit, something I could hit in the air,” Renfroe said. “Just try to get him in, best I could. He threw a slider up. I just tried to take it with me and hit it to right field.”
“We took what was given to us,” Quatraro said. “We hit the ball the other way. There were two-out hits.”
Witt had three hits in all three games of the series as the Royals completed their sixth series sweep.
“He’s not a star; he’s a superstar,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s worth the price of admission. He’s just a special kid.”
Kansas City tied the game with one out in the seventh. Maikel Garcia reached on an infield hit against reliever Justin Anderson and scored on Kyle Isbel’s squeeze bunt.
Chicago’s bullpen leads the majors with 24 blown saves and 33 losses.
“We’ve given up a lot of runs in the seventh inning,” Grifol said. “Brebbia today wasn’t as sharp, but he was still sharp. He just left some pitches over the plate and those guys are good over there.”
Drew Thorpe allowed three singles over six shutout innings, walking two and striking out five in his fifth consecutive start of at least six innings while allowing fewer than three runs.
“We didn’t get to him at all,” Quatraro said. “He was excellent. Guys were saying they had not seen a changeup like that. The cutter and changeup, we didn’t seem to have an answer for.”
Pham had two hits for the White Sox, who lost their seventh straight and suffered their 14th series sweep.
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White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde (7-3, 2.99 ERA) opposes Rangers right-hander Michael Lorenzen (5-5, 3.52) on Monday in Texas.
Royals left-hander Cole Ragans (6-6, 3.16 ERA) opposes Diamondbacks right-hander Yilber Díaz (1-0, 1.50) on Monday.