3 takeaways as White Sox close out a productive homestand with 5-4 loss to Royals

LaMond Pope, Chicago Tribune on Jun 28, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — The Chicago White Sox wrapped up a productive homestand on a sour note on Sunday, losing 5-4 to the Kansas City Royals in front of 27,301 at Rate Field.

Miguel Vargas had a two-run home run and scored twice in the defeat.

The Sox had to settle for winning two of three in the series, their franchise-record 10th straight home series victory. With the loss and Cleveland’s 6-5 win against the Seattle Mariners, the Sox (43-39) and Guardians (44-40) are tied for first place in the American League Central.

Here are three series takeaways:

Sox starter Anthony Kay’s execution is just off

Kay felt like he was working from behind much of Sunday’s outing, and the Royals took advantage.

The left-hander allowed five runs (four earned) on seven hits with two strikeouts and one walk in 3 2/3 innings.

“Just wasn’t getting ahead and just not doing a good job of winning leverage,” Kay said. “Pitching behind in the count is never good.

“Hard ones on the ground were going through the hole and the soft ones were finding grass. Just kind of one of those days where nothing was going right.”

The lead flipped from one team to the other multiple times early.

Vargas’ two-run home run put the Sox ahead 2-1 in the first inning.

“Just continues to make really good swing decisions,” manager Will Venable said of Vargas, who went 2 for 2 with two walks. “I think some of these at-bats, one today he was (behind in the count) 0-2 to a walk there, just really impressive against really good arms.”

The Royals took advantage of a fielding error by shortstop Colson Montgomery during a two-run second inning, going ahead 3-2.

The Sox recaptured the lead in the bottom of the second on a two-out, two-run broken-bat single by Kyle Teel. Sam Antonacci and Vargas — who had doubled — scored to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.

The Royals tied the score with an RBI double by Isaac Collins in the third inning. They went ahead 5-4 with an RBI double by Carter Jensen in the fourth inning.

“It was a tough day for Anthony,” Venable said. “Thought there was not his best command. His stuff was OK, but not his best command. I thought a really nice job by the Royals with two-strike hitting, using the whole field, I thought they made it really tough on him.”

Offensively, the Sox went 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

“It was one of those (overall offensively) where out of the gates you really like the at-bats,” Venable said. “Credit to the Royals’ bullpen bouncing back and making it really tough on us. We couldn’t get anything going.”

The two wins in the series for the Sox comes in vastly different forms

Sox first baseman Jacob Gonzalez had never delivered a walk-off hit in his life.

Not even as a little leaguer?

“Nope,” Gonzalez said. “It’s crazy.”

Gonzalez accomplished the feat Saturday, driving in the game-ending run with a single in the ninth inning to lift the Sox to a 2-1 win.

“I’ve had walk-off groundouts or sac flies, but that was my first walk-off hit,” Gonzalez said on Saturday.

It was the seventh walk-off of the season by the Sox, each accomplished by a different player.

“It seems fitting for our group,” Venable said after Saturday’s game. “We talk about every night, that we’re getting contributions throughout the lineup, every guy that steps on the mound, it’s coming from everywhere every single night.”

Gonzalez was one of the many Sox players contributing to Friday’s 22-1 victory. The rookie drove in five. Vargas also had five RBIs, while Tristan Peters knocked in six.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, it was the second time since 1920 that the Sox had at least three players record five-plus RBIs. The other occasion came on April 23, 1955, at the Kansas City Athletics by Bob Nieman (seven RBIs), Sherm Lollar (five) and Minnie Miñoso (five).

The Sox will try to carry over home success on the road

The Sox went 4-2 during the homestand, taking two of three in series against the Guardians and the Royals.

“We found a lot of ways to win close games,” Venable said. “We continue to play well at home, against divisional opponents. We love to see it. A couple (of games) out there maybe we could have got but even those were hard-fought games and tough ones. Just really happy with where the club is at.”

Vargas summed up the homestand for the team as “great.”

“Overall we have been playing really good baseball, especially at home,” Vargas said. “All the fans have been showing up and we feel the energy.

“It’s easy for us to go out there every day in that atmosphere and win baseball games.”

The Sox are 28-14 at home. They’ll look to build some momentum on the road, where they are 15-25. The Sox begin a three-game series Monday at Baltimore.

“The boys have been great all homestand,” Kay said, “and hopefully we can continue to do that on the road this time.”

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