KANSAS CITY – The seventh inning will be the story of a 10-1 victory for the Royals over the White Sox Thursday night at Kauffman Stadium. And to be honest, it should be.

The White Sox haven’t played great overall baseball through the first week of the 2024 season, as shown by their 1-5 record. But for the most part, they’ve played pretty clean with the top American League fielding percentage entering the opener of this four-game series.

This area of excellence disappeared during the Royals’ eight-run rally, with five of those runs being unearned. The first three unearned runs came home on shortstop Braden Shewmake’s fielding error off a Salvador Perez grounder with the bases loaded and two outs, as Bobby Witt Jr. sprinted all the way home from first.

Shewmake’s miscue extended the seventh, with MJ Melendez hitting a long home run off Dominic Leone to finish the uprising.

“Physical mistakes are OK. I’m alright with that,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “We also made some fundamental mistakes, throwing the ball to the wrong base and doing some stuff that we’re not accustomed to seeing.

“We’ll address those things and we’ll improve that for tomorrow, I guarantee that. Physical mistakes are physical mistakes. The ground ball to Shew by Salvy, maybe mental mistake, maybe physical. Had plenty of time there. He makes that play 99% of the time. Just didn’t happen today.”

There was plenty of time for Shewmake to get Perez at first base, but he seemed to be thinking about second when the grounder rolled through his legs.

“He knew who the runner was,” Grifol said. “He came in, charged it hard and then he kind of broke down a little bit and the ball got up on him. He knew who the hitter was, the runner was and he had some time. These are things we’re going to clean up.”

First baseman Andrew Vaughn, who has played solid defense at the outset, failed to corral Maikel Garcia’s foul pop up near the Royals' dugout with runners on first and third and one out. Garcia followed with a run-scoring single to right.

Reliever Deivi Garcia actually retired Melendez on a fly ball to center fielder Luis Robert Jr. in his attempt to keep the deficit at 2-1 to start the seventh. But he walked the next two hitters, two of the three free passes in the frame.

“Obviously, everybody's doing their best to minimize those when those happen. It's baseball sometimes,” White Sox starter Michael Soroka said. “We're all just trying to play complete baseball like we said in camp.

“That's how the best teams do it. That's how it felt in Atlanta [Soroka's previous club since 2018]. Things were clicking all at once and I think it's just a matter of continuing to play as a team."

Soroka allowed two runs with two strikeouts over six innings and exited with a one-run deficit in a game dominated early by right-hander Seth Lugo, his mound counterpart. The White Sox actually had a number of scoring chances, but four double plays limited them to one run.

Their 1-for-7 showing with runners in scoring position dropped the South Siders to 4-for-32 in that category for the season. Kansas City’s fourth double play ended the sixth, when Gavin Sheets was thrown out at home on Shewmake’s short fly ball to Hunter Renfroe in right as the game-tying run.

Neither Sheets nor Grifol had a problem with the send by third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez. It makes sense for a team with just 12 runs all season, but it’s also the aggressive style of play Grifol wants to feature.

“You just [want to] be aggressive in that situation,” said Sheets, who has reached base in seven straight plate appearances. “He got flat-footed and kind of lost in the sky.

“In the beginning, I wasn’t going to go. We made a decision when he got flat-footed to take a chance. Two outs, 2-1 game, Lugo is throwing the ball really well. Sometimes you have to take chances and he made a perfect throw.”

After suffering three one-run losses at home to Detroit, the White Sox lost by nine runs to the Braves Monday and again to the Royals, dropping to 0-4 against the American League Central. It’s just six games in, but the White Sox can’t lose faith or focus.

“Gotta keep battling. Can’t lose confidence, can’t lose the expectation to win,” Sheets said. “It’s not the start we wanted. Most have been extremely close games, but we have to come expecting to win every day.”