CHICAGO -- On the seventh pitch of the at-bat and the 22nd of the inning, Daniel Lynch hurled a heater on the bottom corner of the strike zone to White Sox center fielder Adam Engel. The bases were loaded with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, and the crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field was on its feet hoping the Royals’ one-run lead would flip over to the home team.

Lynch’s 96 mph sinker made sure it did not. Engel swung through to end the inning and send Lynch fist-pumping his way off the mound.

“I was fired up,” Lynch said, “because it was a big pitch.”

That pitch was a defining moment for the 24-year-old lefty -- and a defining moment for the Royals in their 3-2 win on Thursday night, clinching their second straight series win over Chicago after taking three of four last week. The Royals offense was fueled by Emmanuel Rivera and Edward Olivares, while Jake Brentz notched his first career save with a clean ninth inning.

Against the same lineup that pounced on Lynch for eight runs in 2/3 of an inning in May, the Royals lefty allowed one run in five innings Thursday night to earn his second career win.

And after he allowed 15 runs in eight innings across three starts in May, Lynch has now allowed four runs in 19 innings in the three starts since he returned to the Majors on July 25.

“Just that fight that he’s showing, the, ‘I want to get back in there against the teams I’ve seen before,’” manager Mike Matheny said. “He’s got this edge, this chip on his shoulder. It’ll benefit him for the length of his career. But he’s taking advantage of really good stuff right now. His stuff looks right. He’s got a good game plan. He came back a better pitcher.”

Lynch recognized this was the same lineup that gave him the most trouble in May; it was on his mind as he sat in the dugout during the first two games of the series and came up with a game plan ahead of Thursday.

“I sort of tried to frame it that way and go, ‘This is an opportunity to come back and get these guys back,’” Lynch said. “I think I really proved myself: That doesn’t define who I am as a player. But I also didn’t want to give it too much power. I just tried going with the same approach. Executing the pitches, having a good plan.”

Lynch struck out a career-high seven and flashed a dominating slider. Of the 33 sliders he threw Thursday, he registered 15 swings on the pitch -- and 12 of those were whiffs.

His biggest pitch of the night wasn’t a slider, it was the sinker to Engel in the fourth inning.

Lynch allowed a single to Cesar Hernandez to lead off the fourth, followed by two quick outs facing the heart of the White Sox order, getting José Abreu to pop out and Eloy Jiménez to strike out.

Lynch then walked Andrew Vaughn and hit Yoán Moncada on the foot to load the bases for Engel, who had an .820 OPS and three doubles in five games against the Royals entering Thursday. Lynch threw a heavy dose of four-seamers and sinkers, along with one slider in the dirt, to him to get in a 3-2 count.

“I was trying to let [catcher[ Cam [Gallagher] guide me through that because he calls a great game and he knows these guys really well,” Lynch said. “He’s able to see the game in a way I’m still trying to learn. So I was kind of just leaning on that.

“And then he gave me a fastball down and away, and I just threw it as hard as I could. It went where I wanted to. I was really fired up.”

As the Royals close in on the final two months of the regular season, seeing their young prospects settle into the Majors and continue their development at the top level is crucial to the club’s belief of contention in the next few years. The rotation saw that all series, with Kris Bubic, Carlos Hernández and Lynch combining for a 2.81 ERA (five earned runs in 16 innings).

And it’s what Lynch has done in the past three starts, navigating through Thursday’s start and the fourth-inning bases-loaded mess that taught him more about himself and the Royals more about a key piece of their future.

“We keep talking about trusting your stuff, and really, in those situations, it’ll shed light on whether or not you trust your stuff to say, ‘You know what, I’ve got to come at this guy because I’m not going to give a free base,’” Matheny said. “It’s rare to see young guys maintain that kind of poise when they get backed in the corner like that.”