KANSAS CITY -- The White Sox won in their usual style Tuesday, using the long ball and solid pitching to edge the Kansas City Royals 3-2.

Starter Gavin Floyd went seven innings, giving up just two first-inning runs and allowing five hits in his first win since Aug. 15.

More importantly, the Sox held onto their 3-game division lead over the Tigers, who defeated Oakland on Tuesday night.

“Right now it should be fun for them," Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "They come to play and give the effort and I haven’t had to ask for it."

Floyd gave the Sox their fourth quality start during their five-game winning streak, their longest since a six-game streak from August 20-26. The veteran pitcher can be a solid force going down the stretch fresh off the DL.

"That first inning they got him for a couple," Ventura said. "Other than that he was sharp, he was getting ahead. I wanted to leave him in there a little longer, but we had guys to come in and pick him up."

The Sox offensive hero once again was Alex Rios. who had what proved to be the game-winning home run in the seventh inning.

"Those things do not happen every night," Rios said."Yes the long ball has been working for us but you don’t want to count on it every day . The last couple of games we got big hits instead of hitting bombs. We just need to play complete games."

Closer Addison Reed took care of the final two outs of the game for his 28th save. The Sox are using the young pitcher for less than an entire inning after a meltdown he had on Saturday. Ventura used Matt Thornton for 1.1 innings before bringing in Reed to get the last two outs.

"The last two days it has been pretty cool what the coaches have done," Reed said. "They have matched up our strengths against the other team's weaknesses. Hey as long as the team gets out of here with a win everything is fine."