Jake Peavy quipped that he could have a good season from May on after beating Kansas City 5-1 for his first win.
But his victory was the first step in a long process if the White Sox are able to make a successful run at the American League Central.
"We got to crawl back in this thing," Peavy said after striking out nine, walking one and allowing only four hits in seven-plus shutout innings. "We're in division play now, and for the next few weeks we're going to have a lot of division games. So we got to make these games count."
Quite simply, this looked like the Peavy of old as his 94 mph fastball had plenty of movement, and he snapped off a few breaking pitches to keep the Royals' hitters off-balance.
Manager Ozzie Guillen seemed nearly as pleased with the offense that provided some timely hitting throughout the batting order.
Alex Rios, returning after the birth of his son Alex Javier, capped a three-run rally with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth that Guillen described as the biggest of the game.
The Sox collected 11 hits, and Andruw Jones continued his comeback player of the year bid by hitting an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the fifth.
Alexei Ramirez hit a home run and started the fifth-inning rally with a single.
It added up to the 523rd win by manager Ozzie Guillen, moving him ahead of Tony La Russa for sole possession of third place on the Sox's all-time win list.
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