Kansas City, Mo. ? For a finesse pitcher like Paul Byrd, a weary arm is not necessarily a bad arm.

Once he settled down and got a bit tired, Byrd’s control seemed to sharpen Friday night. He worked six effective innings to lead Kansas City to a 5-2 victory over the mistake-prone Chicago White Sox.

“In pitching, you have to be relaxed and not try to do too much and focus on hitting your spots,” Byrd said. “I’m a better pitcher when I just concentrate on trying to hit my spots. So that happened later when I got a little tired and was able to get some groundballs and popups when I needed them. It was nice.”

Raul Ibanez and Mike Sweeney each drove in two runs for the Royals, who had lost their first two games against Minnesota.

The White Sox, who have lost three straight after winning their opener at Seattle, committed four errors and also hurt themselves with other blunders.

“Tonight was just an ugly game for us,” Chicago manager Jerry Manuel said. “We didn’t do too many things right. We didn’t run the bases right. We didn’t field. We didn’t get the hits and we didn’t make the pitches when we needed to. All that leads to a loss.”

Byrd (1-0) gave up two runs and nine hits for his first win since Aug. 16 at Baltimore. It was just the second victory for the Royals in their last 10 outings against the White Sox, who were 14-5 against their AL Central foes in 2001.

Carlos Beltran doubled with one out in the third. Sweeney then connected off Jon Garland (0-1) for his 100th career homer, putting the Royals up 4-2. Kansas City became the last AL team to homer this season.

Sweeney singled leading off the second and Michael Tucker walked ahead of Ibanez’s two-run double.

In the Chicago third, Tony Graffanino and Kenny Lofton singled and Ray Durham hit an RBI double into left. After Frank Thomas’ sacrifice fly tied it at 2, terrible baserunning cost the White Sox.

With one out and Durham on second, Magglio Ordonez hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Neifi Perez. Durham was tagged out by Perez when he strayed too far off the bag. Then Perez threw to Sweeney at first after Ordonez took a wide turn, and Ordonez was caught in a run-down.

Another Chicago mistake cost the White Sox in the fourth. After Garland walked Carlos Febles and Chuck Knoblauch, Perez attempted a sacrifice bunt which catcher Mark Johnson picked up a few feet in front of home plate. But his throw to first pulled Paul Konerko off the bag and allowed Febles to score the Royals’ fifth run.

Blake Stein pitched three innings for his first save.

Garland, who was 2-0 against the Royals last season, gave up five runs  four earned  and six hits in five innings. He walked four and was victimized by four White Sox errors.

“We’ve got to get our three, four and five guys swinging the bat a little better,” Manuel said. “We need to get those guys going for us to take some pressure off our defense and our starting pitching.”

Notes: Last year the White Sox also won their opener, but lost four straight after that and went 8-15 in April, dropping out of the AL Central race. … Chicago SS Royce Clayton was a last-minute scratch because of a sore toe and was replaced by Graffanino. Clayton was not expected to miss more than one game. … Perez made a nice play at shortstop in the fifth, fielding Thomas’ hot smash behind second, stepping on the bag for a force out and throwing to first for the double play. … The White Sox have given up 13 of Sweeney’s 100 career home runs, more than any other club.