Game Thread: Royals (34-48) at White Sox (41-38)

A weird and wacky season has continued for the Chicago White Sox, and only time will tell how this upcoming series with the lowly Kansas City Royals will play out. On the surface, the South Siders should be able to roll over Kansas City and at least take the series. With that being said, this is the same team that took four of five from the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers before getting swept by the Detroit Tigers last weekend.

Fortunately for the White Sox, they took their last series against the Cleveland Guardians, and all is even atop the AL Central once again. With Cleveland slated to match up against a tougher Seattle Mariners team this weekend, the South Siders have a great opportunity to retake pole position.

To do that, they’ll have to take down the Royals. While their record screams “fire sale,” they may have found their stride recently. In their last two series, the Royals took two of three from a good St. Louis Cardinals team before splitting four games with the AL second-best Tampa Bay Rays.

Both teams displayed a little gamesmanship today, as neither team released their probable starters until late in the day. Whether it was both teams trying to gain an edge or simply trying to figure out who’s going to be available to take multiple innings remains to be seen, but don’t be surprised if either team switches up their starter last minute.

Taking the mound to try to keep some of K.C.’s success flowing is reliever Steven Cruz. He has started just four games in his career, all back in 2023. It’s important to note that all of those starts were as an “opener,” so it remains to be seen what pitchers the Royals throw to finish the game. As for Cruz, he started off the season extremely poorly, taking an 8.36 ERA into the month of June before settling down and allowing just three earned runs over his last nine innings. He leans heavily on his fastball (throwing it 58% of the time), so if Chicago can get the barrel to it, there could be plenty of runs early in this contest.

As for the White Sox, they are throwing out David Sandlin after recalling him from Charlotte earlier today. Sandlin has started in two of his three appearances for the White Sox, and the results have not been there so far. In just over 13 innings he has allowed 12 hits and 12 earned runs, along with an additional seven walks. In Charlotte, he’s been a completely different pitcher, posting a 1.57 ERA in 23 innings of work across six starts, although still a bit wild. It’s been a tale of two Sandlins so far, and it’s anyone’s guess as to which one shows up against the Royals.

For those of you who are looking for cheap game-used souvenirs, you may want to camp out in the outfield seats, as there will likely be plenty of free baseballs leaving the yard tonight.

Here is the starting lineup for the Chicago White Sox:

Here is the starting lineup for the Kansas City Royals: