Michael Wacha goes stellar 8 innings as Royals blank White Sox

Michael Wacha struck out seven over eight stellar innings and Maikel Garcia clubbed a leadoff home run, as the Kansas City Royals continued their strong pitching in this series with Saturday's 2-0 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox.

Wacha (2-0), who turns 35 in July, allowed just four hits and a walk while throwing 88 pitches to help the Royals post a second straight victory by the same score after losing Thursday's opener 2-0.

Lucas Erceg completed a perfect ninth to earn his fifth save for the Royals, who managed just four hits but beat the White Sox for the 24th time in the last 27 games at Kauffman Stadium.

Wacha, who started the game with 17 consecutive strikes, has allowed one run and 10 hits over 21 innings (0.43 ERA) across his first three 2026 starts.

Kansas City starters Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic and Wacha have combined to yield one earned run and 10 hits over 21 1/3 innings over the first three games in the series.

On Saturday, Chicago got doubles from Andrew Benintendi (first inning) and Lenyn Sosa (seventh) but no runners past second base.

The Royals wasted no time getting to White Sox starter Erick Fedde (0-3). Garcia sent the first pitch of the bottom of the first into the left-center field seats.

Kansas City loaded the bases with two outs in the second against Fedde, but Garcia grounded back to the right-hander for the final out of the inning. Fedde threw 45 pitches through the first two innings but settled down to last five frames, yielding just the one run, three hits and a walk while striking out four.

Garcia then ignited the Royals' path to an insurance run in the eighth. He opened the frame by doubling down the left-field line against Jordan Hicks, went to third base on Bobby Witt Jr.'s fly ball to right field and came home when Vinnie Pasquantino flew out to left.

Although Kansas City has won two straight after losing three in a row, the Royals are now hitless in their last 33 at-bats with runners in scoring position over the last five contests.

The start of Saturday's game was delayed 25 minutes due to rain.

--Field Level Media