Chicago ? Jon Garland’s impressive performance against Kansas City did little to change his opinion of his overall performance this year.

Garland pitched into the ninth inning, and Wilson Valdez hit his first career homer to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 5-1 victory over Kansas City on Sunday.

Garland (11-11) came within two outs of his second complete game of the season, and first since June 20 at Montreal. It was his first victory since Sept. 3 against Seattle.

“I’m not happy with the way I have thrown the ball,” Garland said. “I feel I’m a lot better pitcher than I have shown, especially this year. I guess time will only tell how I end up.”

He gave up one run and five hits in 81/3 innings, struck out five and walked two.

“It was just nice to go out there and give my team a chance,” Garland said. “I haven’t done that lately. I have been putting them in a hole and nothing good could come out of that.”

Ross Gload also homered, and Jose Valentin and Joe Borchard hit back-to-back shots in the seventh inning for the White Sox, who won three of four against the Royals. Chicago has hit the second-most homers in baseball history at home this season with 145, second to Colorado’s 149 in 1996.

“We hit a lot of home runs, but we give up a lot of home runs, too,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “The ballpark seemed pretty small this year.”

Damaso Marte got two outs for his sixth save.

Brian Anderson (5-12) allowed five runs on nine hits for the Royals, who lost for the 98th time this season — the second-most losses in franchise history. Only the 2002 team (62-100) lost more.

“He threw the ball well, but he gave up four home runs. Against this type of ballclub, if you leave the ball up and over the middle of the plate, you’re going to pay,” Royals manager Tony Pena said.

Gload homered in the second inning off Anderson to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

“I made a couple of mistakes and instead of going for a single, they went for home runs,” Anderson said.

Garland gave up his only run of the game on a 456-foot shot by Calvin Pickering in the fifth to make it 2-1.

Valdez homered with two outs in the fifth off Anderson to give Chicago a 3-1 lead.

With one out in the seventh, Valentin homered off Anderson on a full count for his career-high 29th. Borchard followed by hitting another.