Cole Ragans, Royals overpower White Sox

Cole Ragans continued his dominance and Edward Olivares homered twice as the Kansas City Royals blasted the visiting Chicago White Sox 12-1 on Monday afternoon.

One day after being named American League Pitcher of the Month for August, Ragans (6-4) allowed only Yoan Moncada's one-out single in the fifth inning while striking out seven over six shutout innings without a walk. Ragans extended his scoreless innings streak to 21 with 32 strikeouts while allowing just seven singles in the stretch.

In seven starts since his trade from the Texas Rangers, Ragans is 4-1 with a 1.51 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 47 2/3 innings.

The Royals posted single tallies in each of the first three innings. Olivares clubbed his first home run with one out in the first, Drew Waters added a two-out RBI single in the second and Salvador Perez's sacrifice fly made it 3-0 in the third.

Nelson Velazquez's two-run homer gave Kansas City a 5-0 lead in the fourth. The 419-foot blast to left was his 10th of the year and seventh in 21 games with Kansas City.

The Royals put the game out of reach with a seven-run fifth inning, capped by Olivares' second home run, a two-run shot 428 feet to left-center for a 12-0 lead. It was Olivares' eighth of the season, marking his second career multi-homer game.

Olivares and Maikel Garcia each collected three hits.

Jesse Scholtens (1-7) allowed five runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. Scholtens is winless with four losses in seven starts since joining the White Sox rotation Aug. 1.

In the eighth, Lenyn Sosa doubled and scored from second on Trayce Thompson's two-out infield hit and first baseman Matt Beaty's throwing error for Chicago's lone run.

The White Sox have lost four straight, including the last three while playing without All-Star outfielder Luis Robert Jr., who is sidelined with right quad cramping. Chicago scored three runs in those three losses and have dropped 16 of 22, falling to a season-worst 32 games below .500.