This Wednesday the (55-53) Chicago White Sox and the (44-65) Kansas City Royals will play game three of this four-game series. The first pitch will be thrown out at 8:10 PM EST inside Kauffman Stadium. This is also the fourth series between these two this regular season, as they are becoming very familiar with one another. In their last series, the White Sox were able to steal two out of three games.
The White Sox are coming into this one after splitting their previous series with the Texas Rangers. Chicago looked solid on the mound and in the field in this series, though. They held the Rangers to zero runs in the final game, as they bounced back from their game three loss.
The Kansas City Royals are entering this one after taking down the Boston Red Sox in their four-game series. The Royals took three out of four games and looked great at the dish in the final game of the series. They scored 13 runs and continued to pour it on the Red Sox.
This game was written/published before last night's results.
The Chicago White Sox are currently (6-4) in their last 10 games, as they have been playing better baseball as of late. They are also still in third place in the AL Central, as they are still 2.0 games out of first place. They will be looking to end this season strong, as they still have a shot at the postseason. At the plate, the White Sox are scoring 4.34 runs per game and they are hitting .257 as a team. This is the 18th least amount of runs scored per game and the fifth highest overall team batting average. They have shown that they can reach base consistently, but they have very little power inside their lineup and they haven't been very clutch when they have men in scoring position. They are only averaging .87 home runs per game, as well. They are being forced to string together multiple hits to score, as they aren't giving themselves any runs with the home run ball. This is also the 27th lowest average in the MLB. I also expe ct the White Sox to stay very conservative once they have reached base safely. They can't risk losing any base runners, as they need every run that they can get. They have only stolen 39 bases this season, which is the 25th least in the league.
In the field, the White Sox also still have some work to do. Chicago is allowing the 19th most runs per game and they tend to make errors that come back to hurt them, as they are giving their opponents multiple chances to score each game. They also have the 28th lowest team fielding percentage, as they have continued to make mistakes while in the field. They have already recorded 69 fielding errors, which is the fourth most in the league.
According to MLB.com, the White Sox will start Johnny Cueto on the mound. He has been decent this season, as he is (4-5) with a 2.91 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. He has looked great on the road this season, though. He is currently (3-2), but his ERA drops to 2.00. It isn't easy to score on him when he isn't inside his ballpark, as he has been sending his opponent's fans home disappointed all season.