KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ For the second game in a row the Royals jumped on top of the division rival Chicago White Sox, but let the visitors climb back into it and make hay against the bullpen.
But similarly to the season opener, the Royals held on for the win and clinched the season-opening three-game series. Ian Kennedy earned his first career save as the Royals registered an 8-6 win in front of an announced 13,533 Saturday at Kauffman Stadium.
Kennedy, who made the transition from starter to reliever this spring, allowed two hits in the ninth before retiring the next three batters.
Jorge Soler and Billy Hamilton each enjoyed three-hit days. Soler drove in three runs, while Hamilton scored twice. Ryan O'Hearn also drove in a pair of runs in his first game of the season.
Royals starting pitcher Jakob Junis pitched five scoreless innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth. He allowed three runs before giving way to the bullpen.
The White Sox got to Junis in the sixth inning. A pair of singles sandwiched around a strikeout set the table for Jose Abreu's first homer of the season, a three-run blast on a 1-1 pitch that carried into the bullpen behind the left-field wall and made it a one-run game, 4-3.
Junis didn't make it out of the inning, and manager Ned Yost brought left-handed submarine-style pitcher Tim Hill out of the bullpen for the final out.
The Royals responded with a four-run bottom half of the sixth inning. They scored a pair of runs before an out was recorded.
Martin Maldonado and Hamilton started things off with back-to-back singles and Whit Merrifield created a three-run cushion with a two-run single to right field, which extended his hitting streak to 22 games dating back to last season. Soler added a two-run double, pushing his RBI total to five in two games.
The 8-3 lead for the Royals proved fleeting as reliever Brad Boxberger struggled through a three-run seventh. He allowed three runs on two hits and a walk, including a two-out, two-run home run by Yoan Moncada on a 3-2 pitch as a five-run lead quickly shrunk to two.
Jake Diekman's scoreless eighth inning set the stage for Kennedy in the ninth.
