Royals ride strong pitching into finale vs. White Sox

The Kansas City Royals' starting rotation has been as strong as it has all season in the two games since the All-Star break.

Looking to continue the trend, the Royals will aim for a three-game series sweep of the visiting Chicago White Sox on Sunday afternoon.

Michael Wacha struck out seven batters over seven scoreless innings en route to Kansas City's 7-1 win on Friday. Brady Singer repeated the feat in the Royals' 6-1 victory on Saturday.

Fresh off his first All-Star Game appearance, Seth Lugo (11-4, 2.48 ERA) gets the ball on Sunday. The 34-year-old right-hander threw a scoreless seventh for the American League in Tuesday's midsummer classic.

In three career appearances against the White Sox, Lugo is 2-0 with a 0.63 ERA. Sunday marks his third start against Chicago in 2024 following a pair of wins against the AL Central rivals in April.

For Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro, a third consecutive quality start from his starter would make for a perfect beginning to the unofficial second half of the season.

"It's hard to ask for a better start, 14 innings without a run," Quatraro said of Wacha and Singer. "And both of them wanted to keep going so they're mad at me for taking them out."

The pitching staff as a whole holds an ERA of 3.74, much improved from last season's 28th-ranked total of 5.17.

Not to be outdone by the hurlers, the Kansas City offense has combined for 13 runs in the first two games of the series. All-Star shortstop and Home Run Derby participant Bobby Witt Jr. finished 3-for-4 on Saturday. The 24-year-old is 6-for-7 with one homer, three RBIs and three runs since the break and leads the club with a .332 batting average.

Going from bad to worse already seems to be the tale for the White Sox.

After entering the All-Star break losers of four in a row, Chicago has mustered just the two runs and only four extra-base hits in two games in Kansas City.

"We had some opportunities to put some runs on the board and we just didn't," White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. "When (Singer) has his fastball going, and his command going, he's got his slider, he's pretty tough to hit."

Lackluster hitting has been one of the many plagues for the White Sox, currently second-worst in baseball with 727 hits (Seattle, 708). The pitching hasn't been much better, holding a 4.60 team ERA after Saturday's loss.

Rookie right-hander Drew Thorpe (3-1, 3.58 ERA) will take the mound on Sunday and look to lead Chicago to its first win since July 10.

Hoping to right the ship and lead the club to its first win since July 10 will be rookie right-hander Drew Thorpe (3-1, 3.58).

Acquired in March in the trade that sent Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres, Thorpe has been a bright spot for Chicago since debuting on June 11.

In his past four starts, Thorpe has gone at least six innings and has allowed two earned runs or fewer in each outing. Sunday marks his first career start against Kansas City.

--Field Level Media