Welington Castillo took a lead off of second base after a one-out double in the fifth inning against the Royals.
The White Sox trailed by two runs and were desperate to get something — anything — going.
Royals pitcher Danny Duffy threw a wild pitch, and Castillo took off for third.
The ball bounced back to catcher Meibrys Viloria, who fired to third and threw Castillo out.
Little has gone right recently for the Sox, who have not won since the All-Star break.
The slide continued with Wednesday’s 7-5 loss to the Royals in front of 14,340 at Kauffman Stadium.
Ryan Goins and A.J. Reed homered, but the Sox couldn’t complete a late rally and dropped their sixth consecutive game. They have been outscored 23-7 in the first three games of the series.
“We’re going to keep playing,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “We have to keep playing. It’s the only thing left. If they keep battling like they did (Wednesday) toward the end, which is a little bit of the better life that we’ve seen over the last six days, there’s still so much baseball left.
“We have to just get back on track. All in all, didn’t give up.”
The Sox were without rookie outfielder Eloy Jimenez, who was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right ulnar nerve bruise.
Jimenez’s injury is another hurdle for a the Sox, who fell to eight games under .500 (42-50) for the first time this season.
Ivan Nova (4-9) allowed six runs on six hits in 4? innings. He walked five and struck out two.
“He threw a lot of strikes,” Renteria said, “but maybe not as well-executed as he would have wanted it to be.”
Nova walked three straight batters in the fifth. All three eventually scored during a four-run inning for the Royals.
“You don’t want to give in, in that situation to that group of guys,” Nova said. “I feel like I made good pitches, especially to (Alex) Gordon, a couple good changeups he didn’t swing at (leading to a walk). Again, I have the tough luck in that situation.”
Down 6-0, the Sox started showing some fight late.
Goins, who joined the Sox from Triple-A Charlotte before the game, hit a two-run homer to right in the sixth. It was his first homer since Sept. 27, 2017 with the Blue Jays against the Red Sox.
“Just putting that uniform on again feels good, to go out and contribute, it feels even better,” said Goins, who had two hits. “But one day is not going to make the whole season. You have to keep putting together good days and hopefully good things will happen.”
They were the team’s first runs since the eighth inning of Monday’s game. The Royals crushed the Sox 11-0 Tuesday.
Reed hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth to get the Sox within two runs.
“I’ve been swinging at some balls down,” Reed said. “So I was just trying to see the ball up and got a pitch to hit.”
The Royals called on closer Ian Kennedy, who retired Yolmer Sanchez on a fly out to end the game and extend the losing streak.
“It’s getting frustrating, but keep working and we know we’re going to get out of this,” Nova said. “I believe in myself, I believe in these guys. We have what, two months and something left. We have a lot of time to turn this around and keep working hard.”
