CHICAGO | It doesn&#8217;t matter, ultimately, that the Royals did it the hard way Thursday afternoon or that Kyle Davies got little reward for seven shutout innings.</p><p>Right?</p><p>All that matters is Coco Crisp yanked a two-run homer in the ninth inning against All-Star closer Bobby Jenks that carried the Royals to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.</p><p>And take a look at the standings.</p><p>The Royals, at 2-1, are all alone atop the American League Central as they prepare for today&#8217;s home opener at a renovated Kauffman Stadium.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s real nice,&#8221; left fielder David DeJesus said with a smile. &#8220;Holding it, that will be the easy part &#8212; just kidding.&#8221;</p><p>There was nothing easy about these three games in Chicago. The Royals were one pitch away from a sweep &#8212; Jim Thome&#8217;s three-run homer against Kyle Farnsworth in the opener &#8212; but had to be happy in winning two of three tight, tense battles.</p><p>Especially since they scored just two runs in each game.</p><p>&#8220;This is a good atmosphere for us,&#8221; Crisp said. &#8220;They like to heckle you a lot here &#8212; I think more than anywhere else. That gives a different dimension to the game. It gets you excited.</p><p>&#8220;For us to come out and play them as tough as we did, and for our starting pitchers to dominate the way that they did, it shows that we&#8217;re doing something right.&#8221;</p><p>Alberto Callaspo started the winning rally with a one-out double against Jenks into the right-center gap. Crisp followed by pulling a first-pitch fastball over the right-field wall.</p><p>Jenks called it a cutter that didn&#8217;t cut.</p><p>The homer snapped a scoreless tie and, for the Royals, ended a frustrating afternoon of wasted opportunities. They stranded 10 runners through the first eight innings, including six in scoring position with less than two outs.</p><p>&#8220;The thing that made it so tough,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said, &#8220;was (Chicago starter) John Danks was not only commanding his secondary pitches. He was commanding the opposite front side to the right-handed hitters. He was getting the fastball in for strikes on the edge of the plate consistently.</p><p>&#8220;I know this is the major leagues, but there aren&#8217;t too many guys who can do it as many times as he did it today. It locked us up.&#8221;</p><p>Even after Crisp&#8217;s homer, the Royals still needed their All-Star closer, Joakim Soria, to put away the White Sox in the ninth. That looked shaky when Carlos Quentin led off with a double.</p><p>Two ground-outs produced a run before Soria put the tying run on base with a four-pitch walk to Paul Konerko. An error by third baseman Alex Gordon on Alexei Ramirez&#8217;s grounder extended the inning and put runners at first and second.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not always that you can go one-two-three,&#8221; said Soria, who did just that in Wednesday night&#8217;s 2-0 victory. &#8220;Sometimes, things happen.&#8221;</p><p>Finally, though, Soria secured his second save by striking out pinch hitter Wilson Betemit. Reliever Ron Mahay, 1-0, got the victory after replacing Davies to start the eighth inning.</p><p>As for Davies, he threw 103 pitches over seven dazzling innings but settled for a no-decision. He permitted singles while walking two and matching a career high with eight strikeouts.</p><p>&#8220;The team got the reward today,&#8221; Davies said. &#8220;We played a great game. Both sides played really well. That was a game that you&#8217;re more likely to see in the playoffs than in the third game of the year. The whole series was great.&#8221;