KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Chicago White Sox offense made it rather easy for left-hander John Danks Friday night.

Adam Eaton and Tyler Flowers each belted three-run homers as the White Sox thumped the Kansas City Royals 12-1.

Eaton and Alexei Ramirez each had four hits, matching their career highs.

Center fielder Eaton hit a three-run shot in the five-run eighth. Immediately after Eaton went deep off Jeremy Guthrie, first baseman Jose Abreu homered.

The 17-hit offensive outburst gifted Danks with his seventh victory and his first since Aug. 1.

"It's definitely a blowout, but at this point just wins," Danks said. "To get a win while scoring 12 runs and pitching well, it's just a fun team win.

"It was muggy, but perfect pitching weather. Thanks to the offense, it was nice to have a big lead. I was able to stay aggressive."

Danks limited the Royals to seven hits. He lost his shutout bid in the ninth when Alcides Escobar scored on Kendrys Morales' sacrifice fly, his 99th RBI.

"It was a good start," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "Guys swung the bat early. The big one was Flo's three-run homer. The way they started off offensively was just a good approach. Anything we hit kind of fell in.

"And Johnny threw well. He was throwing strikes and anything they hit hard was at somebody. It's just one of those nights for us."

Right-hander Kris Medlen, who won his first two starts since inserted into the Royals' rotation, gave up three runs in the first inning and another three in the fourth inning before being pulled in the sixth.

"It's baseball. It's a frustrating game," Medlen said. "You can't get down or anything like that. A ton of effort, a ton of work goes into each start, and I take pride in that. I did the same thing I did last time, it's just I made three less pitches than I did the last few starts. Tip your cap to Flowers. He fouled off some pretty tough pitches down and in, and I hung a curveball to him. It was, like I said, just a frustrating day overall."

The White Sox punched out four singles in the opening inning. Eaton set the tone by singling on Medlen's first pitch. Abreu, the next batter, also singled, moving Eaton to third.

Medlen made a nice play, snagging left fielder Melky Cabrera's high chopper with a backhand and throwing out Eaton at the plate.

But Medlen gave up a RBI-single to right fielder Avisail Garcia and a two-run single to shortstop Alexei Ramirez before coaxing second baseman Carlos Sanchez to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"He's only got a limited amount of innings," Royals manager Ned Yost of Medlen, who sat out last season after Tommy John surgery. "He's still building arm strength, and this was the first time for him to get to 100 pitches, which was good.

"But when he's right, he's got a nice biting curveball that he commands down in the zone, spots his fastball very well and can command his changeup. For me, fastball command today was so-so, it was okay, but the secondary stuff, just really struggled to command it."

In the Royals' second, rookie third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert doubled with two outs, but was thrown out by Cabrera when third base coach Mike Jirschele waved him home on left fielder Paulo Orlando's single.

Catcher Tyler Flowers homered in the fourth with Ramirez and Sanchez aboard after singling. Flowers' ninth home run gave the White Sox a 6-0 lead.

NOTES: Royals 3B Mike Moustakas was out of the lineup for the fourth consecutive game with a hamstring injury. Manager Ned Yost said he anticipates Moustakas will return Sunday. ... Royals OF Alex Rios and RHP Kelvin Herrera, who have chicken pox, worked out early at Kauffman Stadium and exited before the rest of the players arrived. ... The White Sox are 24-26 in one-run games, having the most one-run decisions this season in the majors. ... Willie Reed, who signed with the NBA Brooklyn Nets in July and went to Bishop Miege High School in the Kansas City area, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. ... LHPs Jose Quintana of the White Sox and Danny Duffy of the Royals are the pitching probables Saturday.