Mike Moustakas and the Kansas City Royals put on an offensive display that ruined Adam Dunn’s 400th career homer.

Moustakas hit a three-run shot, Billy Butler had three RBIs and the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 9-4 on Saturday night.

“We’ve very confident coming in here each day,” Butler said. “We believe in each other. We honestly believe coming in each day that we’re going to win.”

Chicago trailed 5-2 before Dunn drove a 2-2 pitch from Tim Collins over the wall in left-center in the eighth. Kevin Youkilis, who singled with one out for his 1,000th career hit, was aboard for Dunn’s major league-best 35th homer of the season.

Dunn is one of 11 active players with 400 homers and No. 50 to reach the mark overall. The burly slugger and Paul Konerko are the first teammates to reach 400 career homers in the same season.

“It’s just about the worst-case scenario, getting it like this,” Dunn said. “We’ve played two bad games. Tonight was a disaster from the get-go. Obviously, I would have wanted it to come in a win.”

Kansas City responded with four runs in the bottom half. Butler, who finished with three hits, singled in Alcides Escobar before Moustakas hit a drive to right for his 19th homer.

All four runs were charged to Brett Myers, who gave up four hits.

“A 5-4 lead is by no means a comfortable situation,” Butler said. “Nobody wants to be pitching with that tight of a lead. Sometimes you have to do it. We have to do it enough. We’ve had to win enough tight ones, so it was good to have a cruise win.”

Moustakas finished with four RBIs for the Royals, who have won four of five. Escobar had four infield singles, scored three runs and had his team-leading 24th steal.

Butler, who homered Friday, was hit by a Jake Peavy pitch in the first inning.

“I think we all know what that was,” Butler said. “I’m not going to beat around the bush on that. Maybe I did a little excessive last night. Professionals hit me below the belt and that’s the professional way to do it and move on. I felt like I won today. We’re going to leave it I professionally got back even.”

Alex Gordon also had three hits for Kansas City, including his American League-leading 39th double. Eric Hosmer contributed a solo home run in the sixth as the Royals rapped out 15 hits overall.

The White Sox committed a season-high four errors. They entered ranked second in the majors with a .988 fielding percentage. It was just their ninth multi-error game this season.

The Royals took advantage of miscues by catcher Tyler Flowers, right fielder Alex Rios and second baseman Gordon Beckham to push across two unearned runs in the third. Butler had an RBI single and scored on Moustakas’ base hit.

Bruce Chen (9-10) held the White Sox scoreless until Dunn doubled and scored on Konerko’s 20th homer in the sixth. It was Konerko’s 41st career home run against Kansas City.

Konerko has connected in back-to-back games since coming off the concussion disabled list Friday.

Chen allowed five hits, struck out five and walked one in six innings. Chen mentioned how the rotation has been pitching well in August.

“I just wanted to keep it going, not let the starting rotation down,” Chen said. “I see all these guys doing well. I say, ‘You know what, I can do that.’ You can start seeing how aggressive and how they’re pitching.”

Peavy (9-9) gave up five runs, two unearned, and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings, dropping to 0-6 with a 5.52 ERA in his past seven starts against the Royals. He is 1-5 with a 5.52 ERA in six starts at Kauffman Stadium.

The Royals are 12-6 in their past 18 games.

— Associated Press —

Luis Mendoza is pitching so well the Kansas City Royals are having some fun with his unorthodox hairstyle.

Mendoza tossed seven effective innings, Salvador Perez hit a tiebreaking two-run double and the Royals rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night.

Lorenzo Cain and Billy Butler each hit a solo homer as Kansas City won for the third time in four games.

Mendoza (7-8), who has shoulder-length hair, allowed two runs and four hits, struck out six and walked one. The 28-year-old right-hander improved to 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in August.

“It’s kind of like his hair,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “His streak gets a little bit longer and a little bit fluffier as time goes on. I don’t know what to say.

“What he’s doing is attacking the strike zone with good natural movement on his fastball, which is tough to center. He’s been very effective with his curveball and his changeup. You add all that up, he gets quick outs, goes deep into the games. I think we’re seeing a lot of what they saw last year in the Pacific Coast League.”

Mendoza (7-8) was the 2011 PCL pitcher of the year, but he entered this season with only six big league wins over parts of five seasons.

If Mendoza’s long hair is the secret to his success, Butler doesn’t care if he ever cuts it.

“Whatever it takes,” said Butler, who hit his 25th home run. “He can do whatever he wants if he keeps throwing like that. He’s strung quite a few starts together that have been real good. I think he’s the best pitcher on our staff right now with the stuff that he’s been throwing. He’s going deep into the game every time out.

“Mendy threw fantastic. He got into a rhythm and was just pounding the strike zone. He had a real good curveball. He’s been working on his off-speed stuff and throughout the season it has gotten a lot better.”

Paul Konerko hit a solo drive for Chicago after being activated from the seven-day concussion disabled list. It was Konerko’s first game since he was struck by a Jarrod Dyson elbow while covering first base on Aug. 7 against the Royals.

White Sox ace Chris Sale (14-4) allowed four runs and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings. The 6-foot-6 left-hander dropped to 11-2 with a 2.60 ERA in his last 15 starts.

Gordon Beckham hit a two-out RBI single in the fifth to give the White Sox a 2-1 lead, but Butler belted a tying solo drive in the sixth.

The Royals grabbed the lead for good in the seventh. Mike Moustakas and Alcides Escobar hit consecutive one-out singles to put runners on corners. Escobar then stole second when Alex Gordon struck out for the second out.

After Butler was walked intentionally, Perez fell behind in the count 1-2 before rifling a double off the fence in left.

“He’s just a big, strong guy who put his bat out there and got it,” Sale said. “You have to give him credit.”

Kelvin Herrera worked out of a jam in the eighth and Greg Holland finished for his fifth save in six opportunities.

The White Sox put runners on the corners with two down in the ninth, but Dayan Viciedo flied out to end the game.

Chicago got a scare in the first inning when a wicked Escobar one-hopper struck Sale in his pitching hand. That prompted a visit from manager Robin Ventura and a trainer, but Sale remained in the game after a couple of warmup pitches.

“At first I was a little scared, but I started moving it around and it was fine,” Sale said. “After a couple of warmup pitches it was fine.”

Royals second baseman Chris Getz broke his left thumb in the fifth inning when he was hit by a pitch while bunting foul. He is scheduled to have surgery Saturday and is done for the season.

— Associated Press —

Dan Straily was surrounded by trouble in the second inning when pitching coach Curt Young made a visit to the mound.

Straily went on to earn his first major league victory as Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes homered to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 3-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday night.

Straily (1-0), a 24th-round draft pick in 2009, held the Royals to three singles over 6 1/3 innings in his third major league start. Straily, who walked two and struck out two, pitched out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning.

The Royals loaded the bases on a single by Salvador Perez and walks to Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer. After the walk to Hosmer, Young went out to talk to Straily.

“He just came out and said, `Hey, what’s going on guys,” Straily said. “We just needed to talk about it real quick. It was all right, make pitches and get out of this and he turned around and jogged away. I made a couple of pitches and got out of it.

“From there I found a rhythm and was able to kind of cruise through the next couple of innings.”

Chris Getz grounded out to first baseman Chris Carter to end the inning and strand the runners.

“As Curt does many times, he’s a very calming influence, especially with these younger guys,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “To pitch well like that in a close game, you’re up here kind of walking on egg shells and really wanting that first win. He deserved it tonight.

“This was the stuff we heard and talked about. He had all his pitches working. He was unpredictable. He had real good downplay on his fastball, which we haven’t seen. He was throwing to the bottom part of the zone better today. It was a good outing for him.”

Crisp, who played for the Royals in 2009, was 2 for 27 this season against Kansas City before the home run.

“It felt we were starting to grind a little harder than we should,” Melvin said. “You start digging and it doesn’t feel like anything is going to happen. At the time, that was certainly the key hit of the game and it ended up being the key hit. You get into a mode sometimes when you’re not swinging the bat, it’s like `Oh, here we go again,’ and you try to fight those demons.”

Crisp drilled a 2-0 pitch from Luke Hochevar deep to right. The ball hit high off a green wall beyond the fence and caromed back onto the field. It was first ruled a double, but Melvin disputed that. After the umpires viewed replays, it was changed to a home run.

Hochevar (7-11) gave up three runs and four hits in seven-plus innings. Hochevar is 0-8 with a 6.52 ERA in nine career starts against Oakland. Hochevar said he doesn’t let his record against the A’s enter his mind.

“It doesn’t matter the lineup or what my history is,” Hochevar said. “You’ve got enough to think about out there. I can’t be going out and thinking about the history.”

The A’s had only a bunt single in the fourth inning by Josh Reddick before Crisp’s home run.

Cespedes, who is hitting .368 since the All-Star break, hit his 15th home run on an 0-2 pitch from Hochevar in the seventh.

The Royals loaded the bases again in the seventh with singles by Billy Butler, Moustakas and Hosmer. Jerry Blevins, the third Oakland pitcher of the inning, retired Getz on a fly ball to shallow center on the first pitch.

Grant Balfour worked a spotless ninth to log his ninth save in 11 opportunities.

The A’s added a run in the eighth when Jemile Weeks’ two-out single scored Derek Norris, who led off the inning with a single and stole second.

— Associated Press —