<table> </table> CHICAGO | History has been a sore subject for the Royals in recent years. This was a first, though. A miserable new low point in a season quickly heading south.</p><p>Joel Peralta and Robinson Tejeda combined Thursday afternoon to allow homers to four straight batters in the sixth inning of a 9-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field.</p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe I&#8217;ve ever seen that,&#8221; manager Trey Hillman said.</p><p>It&#8217;s happened only five other times in major-league history. Until Thursday, the Royals had never permitted such an assault in their 40-year history. The White Sox have never accomplished it in their 108-year history.</p><p>Peralta allowed the first three homers &#8212; to Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Alexei Ramirez. Tejeda replaced Peralta and served up a homer to Juan Uribe before striking out Toby Hall.</p><p>&#8220;The first two, you don&#8217;t feel it,&#8221; Peralta said. &#8220;The third one, you start feeling it. It&#8217;s not a good feeling.&#8221;</p><p>The four bombs, all with two outs, fueled a six-run blitz that turned a one-run game into a blowout. It also completed a three-game sweep that sent the Royals to their seventh loss in eight games.</p><p>&#8220;It hurts,&#8221; Hillman said. &#8220;You&#8217;re seeing it. So you know it&#8217;s happening. They hit a lot of home runs, and we&#8217;re making it easy on them because we&#8217;re not locating pitches.&#8221;</p><p>The victory enabled the White Sox to stretch their lead in the American League Central Division to one full game over second-place Minnesota. The Royals fell to 54-67, which matches their 2007 record through 121 games.</p><p>&#8220;Not a good trip to Chicago,&#8221; right fielder Mark Teahen said. &#8220;This series definitely falls on our offense for not producing much of anything.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s tough to trump homers by four straight hitters, but the Royals&#8217; attack spent the last three games in the fetal position.</p><p>The Royals suffered shutouts in the first two games and were outscored 22-2 in the series. They got just six hits in the finale, including only three singles after a two-run first inning against White Sox rookie Lance Broadway.</p><p>Broadway, 1-0, lasted 5 1/3 innings in his second big-league start after being recalled Sunday from Class AAA Charlotte to replace injured Jos&#233; Contreras.</p><p>The White Sox closed the game with 3 2/3 shutout innings from Horacio Ramirez, D.J. Carrasco and Adam Russell, then optioned Broadway back to Charlotte.</p><p>Royals starter Kyle Davies, 5-4, again succumbed to a rising pitch count. He scrambled through five innings on 100 pitches. He struck out a season-high seven and stranded nine runners.</p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a lot of pitches,&#8221; he agreed, &#8220;but 63 out of 100 pitches for strikes &#8212; that&#8217;s over 60 percent strikes. I just have to be able to finish hitters.&#8221;</p><p>Guillen&#8217;s two-run single in the first inning opened the scoring, but the White Sox answered with three runs in the second. The big blow was Jermaine Dye&#8217;s two-run double with two outs and the bases loaded.</p><p>The White Sox still led 3-2 when Peralta replaced Davies to start the Chicago sixth. Peralta had yielded 10 homers this season in 44 innings but entered on a roll: just one homer in his last 17 1/3 innings.</p><p>&#8220;He took a big step back today,&#8221; Hillman said, &#8220;in a one-run situation when we needed to be what he had been recently.&#8221;</p><p>Peralta retired the first hitter before issuing successive walks to Ken Griffey Jr. and Carlos Quentin. Dye popped out before Thome started the long-ball binge by mashing a 3-1 split-finger fastball over the right-field wall.