After hosting the Blue Jays twice on the South Side this season, the Sox will finally make the trek north of the border and go visit Toronto. Here is what to know about the upcoming four-game series to begin the seven-game road trip.

2012 Record: White Sox 62-51, 1st in AL Central. Blue Jays 54-60, 5th in AL East

2012 Series Record: 3-3

All-Time Series Record: 166-190 (The Sox are 75-103 in Toronto)

The following pitchers are expected to start in the four games:

Jake Peavy: 9-8, 3.08 ERA, 138K vs. Carlos Villanueva: 6-2, 3.30 ERA, 78K

Jose Quintana: 4-2, 2.78 ERA, 49K vs. Hernderson Alvarez: 7-9, 4.58 ERA, 51K

Gavin Floyd: 8-9, 4.43 ERA, 104K vs. Ricky Romero: 8-9, 5.32 ERA, 99K

Francisco Liriano: 3-10, 5.35 ERA, 126K vs. Aaron Laffey: 3-3, 4.72 ERA, 32K

All games begin at 6:07 pm. Thursday’s game is the free MLB.com game of the day. All times CDT. 

Finishing a homestand over with a winning record? Yes please. It would have been nice had all three series been won, but two of three isn’t bad. Especially considering the recently banged up players. The most devastating loss has got to be Paul Konerko. He is currently on the seven-day disabled list. Today, he will be getting tests to see if he can resume baseball activities. Assuming those go well and he eventually gets cleared by team doctors as well as MLB  doctors, he would be eligible to come back on Friday against the Royals. If The King can make it back, that is great, but I won’t expect it. As people have become more aware of the effects of concussions, his getting back quickly would be amazing.

Aside from Paul, Kevin Youkilis has also been banged up a bit. He was hit in the arm in Saturday’s game against the A’s and sat out the finale on Sunday. With both of those guys missing from the lineup, it has had an interesting look of late, but the guys have been managing to get things done. It does help when you have spectacular pitching happening and that is what the Sox got from starter Chris Sale and new long man, Philip Humber. After Francisco Liriano got bumped in Saturday’s game, Philip came in and pitched quite well. He kept the team in the game to give them a chance to win, but the comeback fell short.

Now, the Sox will be looking to keep their lead in the AL Central and perhaps extend it. They are now up two games on the Tigers and it is fairly safe to say that the Indians are no longer part of the picture in the AL Central. It is squarely a two-team race and probably will go down to the wire.

On the flip side, the Blue Jays have found themselves firmly in last place in the East. They are no longer playing in a division where everyone has a record above .500. In their last 10 games, they have only won seven of them, but they did beat the Yankees in their last game played. That win did keep the Jays from getting swept by the Yankes over the weekend. Before that, they were just on a downward spiral of losing to the Rays, A’s and Mariners.

Their recent streak of bad luck probably has a lot to do with the injuries that just keep piling up on the team. Catcher J.P. Arencibia is out. Jose Bautista has been day-to-day. Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson have both been bothered by injuries as well. And of course, there are all the injuries to the pitching staff. Who knows what could have been for the team had there not been the injury bug. Then again, every team could say the same thing.

Who’s Hot: AJ Pierzynski has a 13-game hitting streak and is hitting .391 during this stretch. Casey Jansen has done well of late in his save opportunities. He has converted 15 of 16 chances. Who’s Not: Adam Dunn is hitting just .118 in his last 13 games and doesn’t have a home run. Anthony Gose is hitting just .091 of late.