Kansas City, Mo. ? This win was a long time coming for Anthony Lerew.

The Kansas City Royals’ rookie right-hander earned his first major league victory Monday night, throwing six solid innings in a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Lerew has been pitching professionally 10 years and had to overcome Tommy John surgery in 2008.

“I’ve been waiting for this day forever,” he said. “It’s finally good to have it happen. I definitely have gray hairs. It’s incredible.”

Lerew (1-1), making his eighth major league start and 17th appearance, allowed one run and three hits, struck out four and walked one. He helped lead the Royals to their fourth win in five games.

“I definitely had that in the back of my mind the whole time, which wasn’t a help,” Lerew said of the elusive victory. “I made it a lot more work than it should have been, the added pressure on me.”

The White Sox lost their second straight after an 11-game winning streak ended Sunday. It was just their third defeat in 18 games.

Carlos Quentin’s 13th homer was the only run Lerew allowed.

“It was a good ballgame, but we just didn’t get the big hit,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

The Royals overcame three runners being thrown out on the bases and two errors in the final two innings.

“It was an ugly one,” said Willie Bloomquist, who had three of the Royals’ 12 hits. “We had a lot of mistakes. I made a bunch myself. The bottom line is we came out on top. Ugly or not, we got the ‘W.’ That’s a game in the past few years we’d figure out a way to lose and hopefully we’re turning the corner and finding out ways to win games that we shouldn’t. We had a lot of opportunities to blow that game wide open, but we just didn’t. We were fortunate to come out on top.”

Chicago’s Mark Buehrle lost for the first time since June 1. Buehrle (6-7) allowed three runs on 10 hits.