Royals seek 4-game sweep of struggling White Sox

Kansas City Royals right-hander Seth Lugo said manager Matt Quatraro had a simple request of the team's starting pitchers going into this season.

"He said, ‘Just go out there and give us five solid innings,'" Lugo said. "That seemed to make sense. If we all just did our jobs and gave those five solid innings, things could work out pretty well for us."

As it happens, the formula has turned out to be excellent. The Royals have a chance to sweep their four-game series with the visiting Chicago White Sox on Sunday afternoon, and Kansas City's starting pitchers are a big reason why.

The Royals' starting staff has performed better than any other group in the major leagues.

After veteran right-hander Michael Wacha fired seven shutout innings against the White Sox in Kansas City's 3-0 win Saturday, the Royals' starting pitchers have posted an MLB-leading 1.26 ERA over nine starts (eight earned runs over 57 1/3 innings).

The Royals lead the majors in quality starts -- six innings pitched with three or fewer earned runs given up -- with eight. The Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers have four quality starts each from their rotations.

At 5-4, Kansas City is over .500 for the first time since April 10, 2022. Last year's Royals tied for the most losses in club history and the rotation had a 5.12 ERA, 27th in MLB.

"To have the feeling of healthy competition going on every single night from one start to the next, that's exciting," Royals general manager J.J. Picollo said.

The defense has helped the pitchers as well. The Royals turned only one double play before the White Sox series, but they have eight double plays against Chicago.

The White Sox continue to scuffle with runners in scoring position, scoring just 13 runs in eight games.

Chicago, which has been shut out three times already this season, was 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position Saturday after going 4-for-38 with RISP in their first seven games.

It doesn't help Chicago manager Pedro Grifol that his best hitter, Luis Robert Jr., is out indefinitely after suffering a right flexor strain while running out a double on Friday night. Robert was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday.

"It will be longer than 10 days," Grifol said of Robert on Saturday. "I just don't know how long it's going to be, and I don't think anybody knows. We can talk about it here until we're blue in the face, but we don't know how his body's feeling, how he will react to this kind of stuff."

Kansas City's Alec Marsh (1-0, 1.29 ERA), a 25-year-old right-hander in his second MLB season, will start Sunday in the series finale against the White Sox.

Marsh is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA against the White Sox in 4 1/3 innings. He's coming off a seven-inning, two-hit performance in his last start, a 4-1 win on the road against the Orioles.

Left-hander Garrett Crochet (1-1, 1.38) gets the start for Chicago. He has struck out 16 in 13 innings this season, beating the Atlanta Braves in his most recent start on Tuesday.

Crochet, 24, is 0-1 in his career against the Royals, throwing 4 2/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

- Field Level Media