It’s FINALLY over! The long barren months of no baseball unless you were watching games you might have put on your DVR or saw some archived games is gone. Today, we have baseball at 35th & Shields! And how fitting is it that the Chicago White Sox will open up at home against the Kansas City Royals? A team that some fans insists sucks, but in the past few years have given the White Sox a run for their money. So much so that last season, the Royals came away winning the season series.

This year, I’m hopeful this will not be the case, but you never know until those 18 games are played. Here is what you should know about the upcoming three games:

2013 Record: White Sox 0-0 Royals 0-0

2013 Cactus League Record: White Sox: 14-14 Royals 25-7

2012 Record: White Sox: 85-77 Royals: 72-90

2012 Season Series Record: 6-12

All-Time Series Record: 348-314 (The Sox are 196-140 against the Royals at home)

The following pitchers are expected to start each game this series: 

Chris Sale: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K vs. James Shields: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K

Jake Peavy: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K vs. Ervin Santana: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K

Gavin Floyd: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K vs. Jeremy Guthrie: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0K

Monday’s game is at 3:10 pm, Wednesday and Thursday’s games are at 1:10 pm. All times CDT.  » Continue reading “The Long Nightmare Is Over! Series Preview: White Sox Versus Royals”

The White Sox looked to increase their lead in the AL Central in the season finale against the Royals, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. The Royals pulled out a win in the ninth, beating the Sox 4-3. » Continue reading “That Ended Badly”

Back to .500 again! The Sox beat the Rangers this afternoon to bring their record to 63-63. Gavin Floyd was impressive as the Sox shut out the Rangers 10-0.

Floyd was excellent tonight. He pitched seven innings and barely allowed baserunners. Three hits and a walk. That’s all. Good Gavin showed up tonight for sure. In addition to not allowing baserunners, Floyd struck out six tonight. He brought his record above .500 to 11-10. Chris Sale came on for the eighth. He allowed a hit and a walk, and Jason Frasor pitched a perfect ninth with three strikeouts.

The offense came to play today. Every starter had at least one hit except Alexei Ramirez. He did get on base via a walk though, so he had an opportunity to score and did so. Paul Konerko and Alejandro De Aza were the only starters who didn’t score a run. Speaking of De Aza, he had himself a game. He went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a stolen base. Brent Lillibridge had a great game. He went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored. His RBIs came on a two-run homer in the third inning to put the Sox on the board. Alex Rios hit a two-run homer in the eighth, which were two of the three runs scored in that inning. Tyler Flowers has stepped up in AJ Pierzynski’s absence. He went 2-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. The last three RBIs came from Juan Pierre (2) and Konerko (1).

The Sox still sit five games back of the division-leading Detroit Tigers, but they are once again only half a game behind second-place Cleveland. The Tigers start a series in Tampa tomorrow, and the Indians welcome the Mariners tomorrow. There is a chance for ground to be gained without playing a game.

The Sox are off on Monday as they travel to Anaheim to face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Which I’ve always thought is an unnecessarily long name. Mark Buehrle, the owner of an impressive perfect game and an impressive no-hitter, faces Ervin Santana, the owner of a recent non-shutout no-hitter, Tuesday night.

One last thing. I haven’t written a recap since Pierzynski was cleared for baseball activities, so let me say now that I am BEYOND excited that my favorite player could be back in two weeks. THRILLED even.

Where have all the fail faces gone? Long time passing . . .

No, I don’t know why I have had the song “Where Have all the Flowers Gone” going through my head lately, but it just somehow kind of seems right changing the words a bit. For the first time all season, the White Sox have won three in a row with an 8-0 win over the Angels. So far the West Coast has been kind to the guys and maybe they just needed to play in places they were not expected to win to get back on track. Or maybe the team has read some of the snarky tweets of the fans.

While the scoring didn’t happen right away, it did get going in the second inning on a Gordon Beckham 2-run home run. Bacon has been getting good swings lately and this is good to see from him. The bottom of the second inning saw an 8-6-5 double play occur and it was fortunate it happened as it could have led to some Angels scoring.  » Continue reading “Where Has All The Fail Gone?”

Decked out in pink for Mother’s Day, the White Sox finished their three-game set in Seattle with a series win, beating the Mariners 5-2 in ten innings.

The Sox scored their first two runs in the fourth inning. Paul Konerko, who went 5-for-5, doubled to center with one out, and Alex Rios followed with a single. After Brent Lillibridge struck out, Ramon Castro singled to left, scoring Konerko and Rios on a missed catch error by Mariners catcher Miguel Olivo.

The Sox scored three runs off Seattle’s closer, Brandon League, in the top of the tenth. Brent Morel led off the inning with a single and moved to second on Juan Pierre’s sac bunt. Alexei Ramirez doubled to left, scoring Morel and then scored on Adam Dunn’s double to right. Konerko singled to center, moving Dunn to third, and he scored on Rios’s single to center, giving the Sox a 5-2 lead.

The Mariners scored both of their runs in the fifth. Jack Cust led off the inning with a double to center, and Jack Wilson singled on a pop bunt to Sox starter Mark Buehrle, moving Cust to third. After Michael Saunders struck out swinging, Brendan Ryan singled to right, scoring Cust and moving Wilson to third. Ichiro hit a sac fly to center, scoring Wilson and ending the Mariners’ scoring for the day.

The Sox continue their West Coast road trip in Los Angeles tomorrow night as they face the Angels who took their series against the red-hot Cleveland Indians (thank you!). Edwin Jackson (2-4, 4.98) faces Ervin Santana (1-3, 4.43), and the Sox hope to keep this short win streak alive!