KC Royals finish sweep of White Sox and keep pace with Twins in playoff race

There is a subtle lesson to be learned not only from the Royals’ 10-3 win over the White Sox on Wednesday, but this season as a whole.

It’s this: The annual prospect rankings for all 30 Major League Baseball teams often have some glaring gaps.

For instance, Major League Baseball’s Top 30 list for the Royals in 2020 didn’t include catcher Freddy Fermin. Ditto for 2021 or 2022. The latter was the year Fermin made his big-league debut with the Royals, and he’s been a solid contributor ever since.

Fermin had a two-run homer as part of a four-hit game Wednesday as the Royals finished a three-game sweep of the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“The big leagues are littered with guys that were never a prospect,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Somebody told me a long time ago there’s no prospects in the big leagues, there’s big-leaguers in the big leagues, and Freddie’s a big-leaguer.”

Fermin, who drove in three runs, raised his season average to .304.

“Yeah, I’m proud of that,” Fermin said of his first career four-hit game. “I just tried to make good swings and I did, so I’ll just continue to do that.”

Fellow catcher Salvador Perez, playing in his 1,500th career game, had three hits, including a double, and two RBIs.

“(That means) a lot,” Perez of reaching the milestone. “Thank God for keeping me healthy and keeping me doing what I love to do: play baseball.”

Playoff implications

The Royals (60-49) are in a virtual tie for second place in the AL Central with the Twins, who defeated the Mets 8-3 on Wednesday.

Minnesota (59-48) and KC essentially are tied for the second Wild Card spot in the AL, too.

“Obviously, we want to win every game but winning three in a row here is huge,” said starting pitcher Brady Singer, whose record improved to 8-6. “Obviously in a tough race in the division and the wild card, so we’re just gonna keep trying to put together wins and take it day by day.”

Missed previous games of the series?

Game 1: Bobby Witt Jr. puts on a show in 8-5 win

Game 2: Royals channel 2015 team for 4-3 victory

Key moment

Perez broke a 3-all tie with a single that scored Bobby Witt Jr. in the third inning.

In the fifth, Maikel Garcia and Witt singled and each moved up a base on Vinnie Pasquantino’s infield out. Perez hit a bullet that White Sox center fielder Dominic Fletcher couldn’t quite grab, and Garcia scored.

Hunter Renfroe followed with a sacrifice fly that brought home Witt to make it 6-3.

Game highlights

Pasquantino’s two-run homer in the ninth ended any thought of a White Sox rally. It was his 12th of the season and he has 72 RBIs.

Fermin added an RBI single later in the frame as the Royals scored four times. The White Sox lost their 17th straight game.

Witt was 2 for 3 with two walks and his 24th stolen base of the season. He finished July with an incredible .489 average (44 for 90), seven homers and 22 RBIs.

Standout day for Singer

Other than a blip in the second inning, Singer was sensational, allowing three runs in seven innings with four strikeouts.

It was the third straight start in which Singer has gone seven innings.

“That was something I was struggling with a little bit in the beginning of the year,” Singer said. “So I’m happy to get deeper into ball games towards the end of the year here.”

Reliever Lucas Erceg made his Royals debut and recorded a pair of strikeouts in a perfect eighth inning.

Erceg threw the eight fastest pitches of the game and each was at least 97.2 mph. He topped out at 100.3 mph.

“Wow, 100 (mph) on the black, up and away, change-up, slider, everything,” Perez said when asked about Erceg.

What’s next: The Royals will open a four-game series Thursday against the Tigers in Detroit. Seth Lugo will start the opener against Keider Montero. First pitch is at 5:40 p.m.