Royals 11, White Sox 1
Jeff Francoeur reached the 20-homer plateau for the second time in his career and was one of four Kansas City hitters to go deep as the Royals routed the host Chicago White Sox 11-1 on Friday.
Rejuvenated in Kansas City following three subpar seasons, Francoeur belted a Zach Stewart offering over the left-field fence to put the Royals up 9-0. The veteran outfielder hadn't hit 20 home runs in a season since 2006, when he was with the Atlanta Braves.
Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Alcides Escobar also had homers off Stewart (2-6), who was torched for nine runs over four innings in the worst start of his major league career. Every Kansas City starter had at least one hit, while Billy Butler was the only one not to score.
The offensive outburst made things easy for Royals starter Bruce Chen (12-8), who limited Chicago to one hit over the first six innings before yielding Paul Konerko's 31st homer of the year to lead off the seventh.
Kansas City's Mike Moustakas extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a career-high four hits.