CHICAGO -- The White Sox played with swagger, which has been missing at times during the 2022 season. They also exercised their offensive muscles in cruising to a 9-2 victory over the Royals on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field. 

That decisive victory came hours after the White Sox didn’t make any additional moves before the 5 p.m. CT Trade Deadline, with general manager Rick Hahn basically taking a page from the iconic movie “Hoosiers” and stating “This is my team on the field.”

“We have a lot of overall confidence in ourselves,” said starter Lucas Giolito, who improved to 7-6 by allowing two runs over five innings with seven strikeouts. “It’s just when it comes to game time, having that preparation beforehand, and everyone is focused and confident and ready to go. Tonight was a really good example of that. So if we continue to attack games like we did today, we are going to be in a very good spot.”

“It's good, you know?” said designated hitter Eloy Jiménez, who extended his hitting streak to eight games and raised his average to .448 during that stretch. “That's good to have everybody healthy and be available to do that and having fun. That's one of the things you want to have when you have a team like we have."

That everybody healthy idea came to fruition before the game when center fielder Luis Robert was activated from the injured list after dealing with lightheadedness and blurred vision caused by a virus. Robert is scheduled to play in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale, but he will probably start as the designated hitter, according to manager Tony La Russa.

Tuesday’s output with the bats was pretty solid without Robert’s considerable skills, as the White Sox (52-51) matched a season high for runs scored at home. The first four hitters in the lineup turned in multi-hit performances, with Jiménez finishing with three hits, four RBIs and one run scored.

José Abreu, who has a .371/.421/.553 slash line with 20 RBIs in his last 34 games, went deep and drove in three. Gavin Sheets homered for the ninth time this season, with all nine coming at home and all against right-handed pitchers -- Royals reliever Josh Staumont being the recipient in this instance.

“So many good swings,” La Russa said. “Impressive. Nice way to play the game, give Gio something to work with. Well-earned win for him.”

“I have to give the credit to our offense. I mean [they] just came out focused, prepared,” Giolito said. “I thought that [Royals starter Brad] Keller had some good stuff working, but we were putting together great at-bats all night long. Made our job as a pitching staff a lot easier.”

Jake Diekman, who was acquired in a trade with Boston on Monday, replaced Giolito in the sixth and the veteran reliever struck out two in his perfect frame. Giolito tried to work La Russa for that extra inning, but liked what he saw in the southpaw’s White Sox debut.

“After the sixth inning, Jake’s debut for us, nice 1-2-3 inning, a couple of strikeouts,” Giolito said. “I went to Tony and was like, ‘All right cool. You made the right call there.’ Overall, really good team win. Offense did their thing.”

Diekman was the lone Deadline pickup for the White Sox, while the American League Central-leading Twins added closer Jorge López, starter Tyler Mahle and right-handed reliever Michael Fulmer.

Minnesota then went out and lost to Detroit, while Cleveland lost to Arizona. The White Sox sit two games behind the Twins and one back of the Guardians, with Chicago ready to prove its mettle over the last 59 regular-season games.

A 14-hit output, which included Andrew Vaughn’s first professional triple among his three hits, is a good way to start.

“If we play good, we're going to be there. They do their thing, we do our thing,” Jiménez said. “It's been up and down, but this isn't over yet."

“At the end of the day, it’s on us to come together and have a strong push here to the end,” Giolito said. “If there’s a game to get the swagger back, it was definitely tonight. We showed it there.”