The White Sox wrap up their two city road trip this weekend with a three game series against the Royals in Kansas City.  The Royals took two out of three from the White Sox at US Cellular Field last week and the Sox will look to return the favor this weekend at Kauffman Stadium.  The White Sox are coming off their first series win in Toronto since August of 2006 after winning the last three games against the Blue Jays.  The Royals just finished up a series win of their own taking two out of three from Oakland.  The Sox are 4-5 against Kansas City on the season.

Pitching Matchups

Game one on Friday night will feature Chris Sale (14-3, 2.60 ERA) against Luis Mendoza (6-8, 4.37 ERA) in a rematch of the August 6th matchup.  This will be Mendoza’s third start against the Sox this season.  He is 1-2 with a 3.10 ERA against the Sox in 3 appearances (2 starts).
The last time the Sox saw Mendoza he went 7.1 innings and gave up 4 runs and took the loss, although it was a 2-2 game heading to the bottom of the 8th before Gordon Beckham’s home run put the Sox on top for good.  Mendoza pitched well his last time out giving up 3 runs in 6 innings against Baltimore and earning the win.  For Chris Sale this will be his fourth start against the Royals this year.  He comes in at 2-1 with a 2.57 ERA with 14 strikeouts against just 2 walks in 21 innings pitched.  Sale has won his last two starts since he was given an extended 9 day rest, including his last start against the Royals when he went 8 innings and gave up 2 runs with 7 strikeouts.  Alex Gordon and Billy Butler have both had success against Sale lifetime as they are both hitting over .350 against the Sox lefty.
Saturday’s game will see Jake Peavy (9-8, 3.04 ERA) taking on Bruce Chen (8-10, 5.56 ERA).  Chen once again gave the White Sox trouble in their last matchup as he went 6.2 innings giving up 2 runs on 7 hits in a win over the Sox on August 7th.  He is now 4-4 with a 3.72 ERA lifetime against the White Sox.  Chen’s last outing was not as great as he was beaten by the Orioles giving up 4 runs in 5.1 innings and allowing 2 home runs.  Peavy was once again the victim of low run support his last time out.  Despite giving up 2 runs through 8 innings, Peavy took a no decision against Toronto.  He was actually on the hook for his 3rd complete game loss of the season until Adam Dunn’s homer in the 9th inning forced extra innings with the Sox eventually falling 3-2 in 11 innings.
Peavy’s last outing against the Royals was August 7th when he was outdueled by Chen despite a solid performance, 3 runs in 6.2 innings.  On the year Jake is 0-2 with a 5.93 ERA against Kansas City in two starts.  Billy Butler and Jeff Francoeur have done the most damage against Peavy as they are hitting .400 and .407 respectively.  Butler has 10 hits in 25 at bats against Peavy, with 3 of those hits leaving the premises.
Sunday’s finale will matchup Jose Quintana (5-2, 2.77 ERA) and Jeremy Guthrie (5-12, 5.75 ERA).  Guthrie will be making his 6th start for the Royals since coming over in a trade from Colorado.  After giving up 14 runs in his first 16.1 innings with KC he hasn’t allowed a run in his last 15 innings including 8 shutout innings against the White Sox on August 8th, a game the Royals won 2-1.  The opposing pitcher in that game was, you guessed it, Jose Quintana.  Jose went 7 innings and allowed 2 runs, both on solo homers, and took the loss.  Quintana will be making his third start against the Royals this year, in the first two games he is 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA and has allowed 4 home runs to Royal hitters.  He is coming off a win in Toronto where he pitched 6.2 innings and gave up just 2 runs on 8 hits.

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Keys to the Series

Konerko Returns: White Sox Captain Paul Konerko returns to the team on Friday after missing the series in Toronto while spending time on the 7-Day Concussion DL for an injury suffered last week against the Royals when Jarrod Dyson’s elbow hit Konerko in the temple on a play at 1st base.  In his absence Robin Ventura tinkered with the lineup and was able to get enough offense to take three out of the four games against the Blue Jays.  Konerko had been struggling in August hitting just .160 with 1 home run and 2 RBI without drawing a walk.  It’s been widely known that Konerko has been battling injuries all season and while a concussion certainly isn’t a good thing, the time off may have given him a chance to get some of those other nagging injuries a little better.  Down the stretch the White Sox will need Konerko to be effective at the plate, as he has been for most of the season.  Lifetime against the Royals Konerko is a .271 hitter with 39 home runs and 137 RBI in 217 games.
Beat the teams you should: As documented in last week’s series preview the White Sox have struggled against the Royals in recent years and once again find themselves with a losing record against KC.  Starting tonight the Sox play 9 of their last 45 games (20%) against the Royals.  They need to find a way to beat them and win a majority of those games against a team that is 15 games below .500 coming into this weekend.  I cannot sit here and watch the Sox make Bruce Chen and Jeremy Guthrie look like Cy Young and Christy Mathewson again.  If you want to win a division you have to beat the teams you are supposed to beat and the Royals are one of those teams.

Going Deep: The White Sox continue to score the majority of their runs via the long ball.  In the series against Toronto the White Sox hit 10 home runs accounting for most of their run production.  Despite the fact that Kansas City is not a very home run friendly ballpark, the Sox should be able to continue their assault on the baseball facing a couple of pitchers who are very prone to giving up the long ball.  Of course I said that last week and Cy Chen and Christy Guthrie shut them down but I have a good feeling about this weekend.

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Outlook

The Sox are flying high after taming the Great White North for the first time in six years.  They need to ride that momentum into Kansas City.  They get their Captain back in the lineup and are throwing their most reliable pitchers so there is no reason to expect anything less than a series win.  Once again, I said this last week and it didn’t turn out too well but I feel like the Sox are playing very well and with a lot of confidence.  They broke the curse in Toronto and I expect them to break out of whatever hex the Royals have on them too.

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Posted by GSB! Contributor, Matt Hoeppner.