Castillo helps White Sox beat Royals

WHITE SOX 4, ROYALS 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matt Davidson figures the pitching staff for the White Sox is good enough to keep them in just about any game. The only question is whether their offense is going to come through.

It hasn't been much of a question through their first two games.

After pounding six homers in a season-opening win over the Royals, the White Sox resorted to small ball Saturday night. Welington Castillo delivered a go-ahead two-run double with two outs in the eighth inning, and Chicago rallied for a 4-3 victory over Kansas City.

"Our pitching staff and our bullpen is really going to be the backbone of this team," said Davidson, who followed his three-homer opener with an RBI on Saturday night. "As long as we're in reach, I feel like our offense can do pretty well."

Lucas Giolito kept the White Sox in the game against a stingy Ian Kennedy, turning over a 3-1 deficit to his bullpen. Danny Farquhar (1-0) and the rest of the relief corps managed to shut down the Royals while Castillo and the Chicago offense bailed their starter out.

The go-ahead rally began when Yoan Moncada hit a towering home run off Brandon Maurer (0-1) to begin the eighth — "He hit that ball pretty good," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said with a smile.

ASTROS 9, RANGERS 3 Lance McCullers Jr. struck out 10 in 51/3 innings and Carlos Correa hit a two-run homer, leading Houston to the victory. Correa and AL MVP Jose Altuve each had four hits and scored twice for the World Series champions. Jake Marisnick hit a two-run drive, and Marwin Gonzalez also drove in two runs. McCullers (1-0) was one short of his career high in strikeouts.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

METS 6, CARDINALS 2 Yoenis Cespedes and Travis d’Arnaud homered, Todd Frazier drove in three runs and the Mets opened at 2-0 for the first time since 2013. New York right-hander Jacob deGrom (1-0) struck out seven while pitching 52/3 innings of one-run ball. D’Arnaud connected in the fourth and Cespedes made it 4-1 with another solo drive in the fifth.