KANSAS CITY -- By the time the Royals had gone through three hitters during a 6-0 victory over the White Sox on Sunday at Kauffman Stadium, they already had three runs. They also were well on their way to victories in the weekend series and the season series over the American League Central leaders.

Whit Merrifield drew a six-pitch walk to open the action against White Sox starter Dylan Cease (11-7), and Nicky Lopez doubled to right to put runners on second and third. But the greatest focus of that particular frame fell upon that third at-bat, when Salvador Perez connected on a 1-0 four-seam fastball at 99.3 mph and drove it 448 feet to right, as projected by Statcast.

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This opposite-field fountain blast marked Perez’s third home run in four at-bats at that point this weekend. He connected against Reynaldo López and Michael Kopech during a 10-7 White Sox victory on Saturday.

“Best explanation is men, not machines," White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. "The three home runs he hit were all preventable. That’s my answer. They were preventable, didn’t pitch to the plan. The plan was definitely to keep him in the ballpark. These guys are men, they’re not machines, they make mistakes.

“We had other at-bats in the three days, ball stayed in the park, right? So there is a way we were going to go after him and we made mistakes and he punished us. But the plan was if you’re going to make a mistake, don’t make it over the plate, make it off the plate. Paid dearly. Not yesterday, but we paid today.”

After driving in five runs via his two home runs Saturday, Perez faced Craig Kimbrel as the tying run with two outs in the seventh inning. The veteran closer, who had primarily attacked Perez with fastballs in their past history, threw one fastball among his five pitches and all five were out of the zone. Perez chased three offspeed offerings and struck out.

Cease’s fastball was well off the plate. So he felt it was more about good hitting by Perez.

“You always have to show your fastball at some point," Cease said. "It makes your offspeed play that much better. Looking back, I probably would go offspeed, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the worst pitch ever. It was just a good piece of hitting.”

“Most of us could stand in right field with a fungo and not hit it up there,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “It’s just beyond -- when it came off the bat, it looked different. I don’t know how else to say it. I’m sure glad he’s on our side.”

Those three hitters became the lone real blemish on Cease’s ledger, with the right-hander striking out nine and walking three over five innings and 98 pitches. Cease has 197 strikeouts overall in 148 2/3 innings, topping out at 99.8 mph Sunday. His 24 swinging strikes, per Statcast, represented his second highest total this season behind 29 on May 27 against Baltimore.

“Yeah, I put in a lot of work this offseason. And put in a lot of work during the season as well,” Cease said. “We have a great training staff. So, I think all those are factors. My body feels good right now. … I just kept moving forward, being as aggressive as I can be and trying to execute pitches.”

“He kept us in the game. Worth praising him for that,” La Russa said. “That’s a rough first inning and he put it behind him, which is impressive.”

Brady Singer (4-9) yielded four hits and struck out six over seven scoreless innings, as the White Sox (79-58) didn’t produce many scoring opportunities in a Sunday lineup without Yasmani Grandal and Andrew Vaughn and with shortstop Tim Anderson on the 10-day injured list. Their magic number to clinch the division remained at 18, with Cleveland winning in Boston.

Chicago also finished at 9-10 overall against the Royals after posting a 9-1 mark vs. Kansas City in 2020 and a 7-0 ledger at Kauffman. Perez’s eight home runs, 20 RBIs and 12 runs scored over 19 games against the White Sox certainly influenced that Kansas City comeback.

“Mostly I just tip my cap, honestly,” said Cease of Perez’s home run. “It could have been a little more off the plate, but it was a decent pitch, so just a good piece of hitting.”