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 Carlos Quentin, A.J. Pierzynski, Nick Swisher and Alexei Ramirez homered Tuesday night and the White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 9-5.
Guillen, who went on a tirade Sunday after the White Sox lost their third straight against Tampa while scoring just four runs in those defeats, had called on general manager Ken Williams to make some changes or he would do so with the lineup.
Neither happened. Williams and Guillen met -- Guillen said they cleared the air
-- and the manager did very little tinkering with his first-place team.
Gavin Floyd (6-3), allowed four runs -- two earned -- and six hits in seven innings, including Mark Teahen's two-run homer in the seventh.
Pierzynski's first homer since April 22, a two-run shot, capped a four-run second against Zack Greinke (5-3) and put the White Sox ahead 6-0.
Greinke allowed nine hits and eight earned runs in six innings. His ERA rose from 2.88 to 3.56.
Quentin hit his 15th homer after Pierzynski's one-out single in the first. In the second, Joe Crede singled and Alexei Ramirez was credited with a double after Royals' shortstop Tony Pena couldn't come up with his grounder and the ball went into the outfield. Orlando Cabrera then bounced a two-run single up the middle before Pierzynski hit his fourth homer.
Ramirez's error on Joey Gathright's grounder, Pena's single and an RBI single by David DeJesus made it 6-1. The Royals got a second run when Alex Gordon hit into an unusual inning-ending double play. He grounded to second baseman Ramirez, who couldn't tag Mark Grudzielanek in the base path and threw to first for the out. Paul Konerko's relay to second got Grudzielanek, but not before Pena crossed the plate.
Swisher, batting .201 entering the game, hit a solo shot leading off the bottom of the sixth and Ramirez followed with another one out later to make it 8-2.
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Gordon's RBI single off Octavio Dotel brought the Royals to within 8-5 in the eighth, but Ramirez had an RBI single off Jimmy Gobble in the bottom half.
Notes: Greinke is now 2-7 in his career against the White Sox, including 0-5 at U.S. Cellular Field. ... The biggest tweak for the White Sox was Guillen moving Paul Konerko back to the cleanup spot. Chicago's 4-5-6 hitters, including Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye, were 1-for-11 with a walk. ... The White Sox are in a stretch in which they play 26 of 32 games in Chicago, including three at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.
[Associated Press; By RICK GANO]
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