Royals hand lowly White Sox sixth loss in row

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jonathan Cannon found a nice rhythm against the Royals Saturday night, but only after he allowed four runs in the first two innings of a 6-1 defeat for the lowly White Sox, their sixth in a row.

After the Royals peppered the rookie right-hander for four runs on seven hits in the first two innings, including a three-run first, Cannon faced the minimum over the last 13 batters he faced, allowing one hit.

But the Sox, after getting blanked by Royals starter Michael Wacha over seven innings Friday in their first game after the All-Star break, didn't score in seven against Brady Singer on Saturday.

The defeat dropped the Sox (27-73) to 46 games below .500 and made them the 14th team in MLB history to lose 73-plus games in their first 100.

With a firm grip on the worst record in baseball and with 62 games to go, the Sox are threatening to break the 1962 Mets (40-120) record for most losses.

Cannon (1-4, 4.58), trying to establish himself as a rotation starter for next season, did not walk a batter and struck out four.

Tommy Pham doubled against Hunter Harvey in the eighth and advanced to third on left fielder's error before scoring the Sox' first run on Andrew Benintendi's ground out.

Second baseman Brooks Baldwin, called up Friday for his major league debut, was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Baldwin, who was batting .324 between Double-A and Triple-A levels this season, struck out with the bases loaded in the fourth against Singer and with two runners on against Hunter Harvey in the eighth.

Lefty Tanner Banks walked in two runs in the Royals’ eighth, both runs unearned by virtue of a fielding error by shortstop Nicky Lopez and a throwing error by Banks.