After players-only meeting, White Sox top Royals, take series

Former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen used to say good teams win and bad teams have meetings.

The Sox had a players-only meeting Thursday morning as they attempt to make one last push to salvage a most frustrating season.

Then they went out and beat the Royals 7-1 to claim a series win. They improved to 65-66 and closed to four games of the American League Central-leading Guardians, who were blanked by the Orioles. The young Guardians are as big a surprise as the Sox are disappointing.

“Just a team meeting for us to reinforce that there are [31] games left, and we have to keep playing hard,” said right-hander Johnny Cueto, who pitched 5„ innings of one-run ball while lowering his ERA to 2.93.

“It was good because everybody left the meeting motivated and knowing we have to keep battling and keep fighting to get to the point where we want to be.”

The Sox homered seven times and walked 11 times in the series, a welcome development for a team ranking 25th in the majors in home runs and 29th in walks. Andrew Vaughn and AJ Pollock went deep as the Sox hit multiple homers for the third time in the series and won a game by more than three runs for the first time since topping the Rangers on Aug. 7.

Vaughn’s 15 homers lead the team.

“That’s got to be your approach all the time,” Vaughn said. “That’s how we get beat, chasing. If we keep it in the strike zone and stay to our approach, I think we can do a lot of damage like we did today.”

Pollock, who played on a World Series winner for the Dodgers, said the meeting was worthwhile.

“It’s been frustrating this year,” Pollock said. “We’ve had times where we had a lot of meetings, and it really just comes down to us. It was good to get the guys together. We had some guys speak their mind a little bit. We’re going to get after it and see what happens the last 30-whatever games.”

The Sox have four games left with the Guardians and nine left with the second-place Twins, whom they trail by three games, including three this weekend at home.

“It’s no secret we haven’t played really good baseball this year,” Pollock said. “We’ve underperformed. I feel like there have been times where we’ve put a lot into it, and it just hasn’t worked out, and it’s been really deflating. But at the same time, we’ve got to keep showing up. We’ve got to keep pushing and pushing. We know we’ve got the group. We know we’ve got players that can make that run. We can’t wait. This is it. This is the chance that we can get on a little bit of a run here.

“See what happens when you put some pressure on the teams above you. Maybe they fold, and we can get hot, too. We’ve got a lot of games against them, too. Just keep building and see what happens.”

Cueto, who struck out five and walked none, questioned the Sox’ fire three weeks ago.

“Right now, we’re playing with excitement and heart,” Cueto said. “The team has really good chemistry right now, and we just need to go running on that.”

After losing 9-7 Tuesday in the series opener, moments after learning manager Tony La Russa would be away indefinitely while undergoing medical tests, the Sox are 2-1 under acting manager Miguel Cairo, the team’s bench coach.

“Communication is the thing that’s most important,” Cairo said of the players getting together. “Honesty. Have to be up-front.

“We’re going to have fun. As soon as you cross that line, it’s a battle. You have to be a warrior.”