Kansas City, Mo. ? Kansas City manager Buddy Bell knew it had been a long time since the Royals came back from a deficit entering the ninth inning.

“I knew it was over 100 games,” Bell said. “We’d get close, but not over the hump.”

The Royals rallied with three runs in the ninth to defeat the Chicago White Sox, 10-9, Wednesday night, snapping a franchise-record 102-game losing streak in which they trailed after eight innings. The last time they won with a deficit entering the ninth was Aug. 31, 2004, against Detroit.

“It is nice to break that streak,” said Mark Teahen, who scored the winning run. “I’m definitely enjoying it.”

Angel Berroa’s double drove in the tying run, and Jermaine Dye’s fielding error allowed Teahen to score the winner. Chicago lost for just the fourth time in 17 games against Kansas City this season, and had its AL Central lead cut to five games over the Cleveland Indians – the smallest lead for the White Sox since before play on June 16.

“The grass is a little wet,” Dye said of his error. “I was trying to cut the ball off and give us a chance to hold the runners.”

White Sox closer Dustin Hermanson (1-4) blew his fourth save in 38 chances.

“I made some mistakes and paid for it,” he said.

Hermanson, who has been bothered by a sore lower back, did not pitch Tuesday as manager Ozzie Guillen opted to leave Bobby Jenks in for a two-inning save.

“Obviously, every time we have a lead in the ninth inning I want to be in there,” Hermanson said. “I think they are trying to help me, not overuse me. I think they’re doing the right thing, trying to take care of me, trying to protect me.”

White Sox starter Freddy Garcia gave up seven earned runs and nine hits in 51â3 innings.

“When you score nine runs, you should have a win,” Guillen said. “We pitched poorly. Freddy pitched really, really poorly. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and pitch better.”

Matt Stairs started the rally with a one-out single. Emil Brown and Teahen followed with consecutive singles to score pinch-runner Chip Ambres. Berroa then doubled to right to bring in Brown with the tying run, and Teahen scored when Dye had trouble picking up the ball.

“My job is to keep running until he (third base coach Luis Silverio) stops me,” Teahen said. “I don’t know what happened with the ball in right field.”

Said Stairs: “Finally, we took advantage of the other’s teams mistake instead of them taking advantage of our mistakes. That’s probably our nicest win of the year. Hermanson has done especially well closing games. To sneak in there and take a game with some clutch hits is nice.”