The White Sox will lose to anybody.
Jordan Lyles will lose to anybody.
Somebody had to give, and Lyles was that somebody.
The White Sox have their first win of the Chris Getz era, and it came at the expense of the American League's tomato can.
It wasn't easy. Through five innings, Lyles was in line for the win. In the sixth, the hard contact finally arrived. Luis Robert just about embedded a 109-mph missile into the left-field wall for a double. He just hit it too low. Andrew Vaughn followed by hitting one three degrees higher in the same direction, and it cleared the wall for a two-run homer that gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead.
With Lyles in position for his 16th loss of the season, Matt Quatraro then went to the bullpen for Tucker Davidson, and Yoán Moncada sent his first pitch out to left field 433 feet away for back-to-back homers.
If serving up a homer to the right-handed Moncada isn't enough, Davidson then gave up Oscar Colás' first career homer off a lefty to make it a 5-2 game.
That turned out to be key, because Aaron Bummer immediately jeopardized the game in the eighth inning by walking Nick Loftin and giving up Edward Olivares' third homer of the series, narroing the lead to 5-4. He did get Bobby Witt Jr. to ground out, but once the three-batter minimum passed, Pedro Grifol went to Gregory Santos, who survived a couple of lineouts to end the threat.
The Sox restored a multi-run lead in the ninth after two outs, when Korey Lee singled to right, reached third on Elvis Andrus' single to right, and scored on Andrew Benintendi's single through the right side. Bryan Shaw then took over closing duties and invited his own two-out trouble by walking Drew Waters on four pitches, but he rebounded by striking out Kyle Isbel on three pitches.
The bullpen was able to preserve the win for Touki Toussaint, who deserved it. He pitched six strong innings, allowing just two hits and three walks while striking out six.
He courted trouble in the first inning by firing well wide on what could've been an inning-ending 1-6-3 ball, but even though that put runners on the corners with one out, he got a 6-4-3 ball that accomplished the same purpose.
The only damage Toussaint suffered was in the fourth inning on a Bummer-like two-batter sequence. With two outs and nobody on, he walked Michael Massey on four pitches, then served up a two-run homer to Nelson Velazquez that turned a 1-0 White Sox lead into a 2-1 deficit.
Toussaint shook it off and ended up with a quality start with some pitches to spare. He only got six swinging strikes on 91 pitches, but five of those whiffs were good for strike three, and he allowed only four hard-hit balls on the evening, as opposed to Lyles' eight.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox didn't strike out against Lyles, and only fanned four time against one walk.
*Andrus batted leadoff because Tim Anderson dealt with neck stiffness and went 4-for-5 with a double.
*Vaughn went 3-for-4 with the two-run homer and two runs scored. He crossed the plate on Gavin Sheets' two-out double in the top of the fourth for the first run of the game.
*Lyles could've ended up with a no-decision, but even then, the Royals are 0-7 in his no-decisions. They're now 4-23 in his starts this season.
