Chicago ? After getting the early hook in his last outing, Luke Hochevar had his manager a little on edge again.

Hochevar regained his composure after a brief scare in the first inning and coasted through the Chicago White Sox’s lineup.

Jose Guillen hit a two-run homer, and Hochevar pitched six sharp innings as the Kansas City Royals defeated the White Sox, 7-2, on Tuesday night.

“First couple of hitters I was nervous because he was having trouble, going east to west a little bit, but he settled in,” K.C. manager Trey Hillman said. “Especially bouncing back from what happened to him in Tampa, I thought it was a very good outing for him.”

Hochevar (3-1) allowed just one unearned run on three hits and pitched around four walks. He rebounded after he was tagged for nine runs and 11 hits over just 22/3 innings Thursday in an 11-1 loss at Tampa Bay.

After walking his first two batters, Hochevar got Andruw Jones to hit into a double play and struck out Paul Konerko and never ran into trouble again.

“I’d pretty much made up my mind after six (innings), I thought it was good enough,” Hillman said. “Not necessarily a pitch count, it was more based on he’d done his job, gave us a quality start. In comparison to what he did in Tampa the other day, he came in here and did a pretty good job.”