Drew Thorpe stays on roll with six scoreless innings but White Sox lose seventh in row

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Drew Thorpe ran his streak of excellent starts to five, holding the Royals scoreless for six innings Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.

But in the end, as it often happens with these White Sox, it mattered not in the tiny win column. In the Sox' latest defeat, their seventh in a row by a 4-1 score, Thorpe exited leading 1-0.

Seth Lugo pitched a complete game shutout for Kansas City (55-45).

Justin Anderson allowed one run in the seventh to tie it for the Royals and John Brebbia gave up three, dropping the Sox to 27-74.

The rookie right-hander who came to the Sox in the trade for Dylan Cease allowed three hits and two walks and hitting one batter while striking out five. In five straight starts, he has allowed two runs or less and three hits or fewer.

Thorpe is not overpowering, but spotting his low 90s fastball and mixing his secondary pitches, he blanked a Royals (54-45) team that scored seven and six runs in the first two games of the series.

Thorpe threw 96 pitches, 62 for strikes, and had 18 swings and misses, including nine with his changeup and seven with his slider. He worked out of trouble in the first and sixth innings and lowered his ERA to 3.03.

In the Nick of time

Nick Senzel went 0-for-2 Sunday and 0-for-7 in his first series after signing as a free agent.

“I just think there’s some opportunity,” Senzel said of signing with the Sox after he was let go by the Reds. “The team is going to be in some sort of transitional period come the[trade] deadline, but you never know what’s going to happen. Just know that there’s some opportunity to kind of revive my season and hopefully get some wins here and finish this season strong.”

Senzel started at third base Sunday and Friday – after arriving to Kauffman Stadium around 5 p.m. due to the day’s national airline delays – and he had one at-bat Saturday. The former No. 2 overall draft pick figures to play some second base and outfield as well.

Senzel entered the game batting .204/.297/.351.

This and that

Martin Maldonado cleared waivers and was granted his unconditional release.

*Play-by-play voice John Schriffen returns to the booth after having the Royals series off along with analyst Steve Stone, who is off till the Sox return home Friday.