Miguel Vargas and Jacob Gonzalez each hit three-run homers in an epic, 10-run third inning, Chicago’s best this season, and the White Sox started the second half of their six-game homestand with a bang by demolishing the Kansas City Royals 22-1 on Friday night.
As part of an explosive frame that featured eight hits in 14 batters, Gonzalez walked with one out and Sam Antonacci singled to put a runner in scoring position in the third.
Vargas made the visitors pay by lifting a towering shot off Mitch Spence (0-2) to left for his career-high 18th long ball and a 3-0 lead. Chase Meidroth produced an RBI single with two outs to add on a run.
Tristan Peters – batting for the second time in the inning — moved the advantage to 6-0 by grounding a two-run single past Spence, and Gonzalez plated three with a homer to right. Vargas knocked in his fourth run with a double for the 10th tally.
Peters popped a grand slam and posted six RBIs, and Kyle Teel (three RBIs) and Andrew Benintendi also went deep. Meidroth had four hits, while Gonzalez and Vargas had three hits and five RBIs apiece. Antonacci notched three hits as the team totaled 23.
Recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Charlotte, White Sox starter David Sandlin (2-1) allowed one run on three hits in six innings. The rookie right-hander fanned six, walked three and induced two double plays.
The Royals’ Carter Jensen singled for a 17-game hitting streak, and Jac Caglianone tripled and walked. Kansas City totaled four hits.
Designated hitter Bobby Witt Jr. (knee sprain) returned after a six-game absence and went 0-for-3 with a run and a walk.
With scheduled starter Stephen Kolek on the paternity list, Steven Cruz opened for the first time and tossed 1 1/3 innings of hitless, scoreless ball.
Position player Tyler Tolbert soft-tossed a scoreless eighth inning.
Jensen greeted Sandlin’s return to the majors with a leadoff single to boost his hitting streak, but the righty fanned Caglianone and got Lane Thomas to ground out to begin his third career start, which featured a spell of nine straight retired.
However, he walked the first three batters in the fourth, and the Royals scored on Michael Massey’s double-play grounder. But Benintendi lobbed his 10th homer leading off the bottom half for an 11-1 advantage.
Teel added on two more runs in the fifth by hammering his first homer this season, a 399-foot shot to right-center, and Peters slugged a grand slam in the sixth.
In the seventh, Meidroth had an RBI single, Gonzalez knocked in two with a single, Vargas drove in one and Teel singled in the final marker for a 21-run lead.
