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For those of you who were too young to know–and I barely remember it myself as I was born in 1980–the Royals were once a power in Major League baseball.  Formed in 1969, through their first 21 years in baseball, the Royals had 14 winning seasons.  They won their division (then the AL West) seven times, and made the playoffs in eight of those 14 winning seasons.  They won their lone World Series in 1985.  

But for those of us too young to remember those days, we may be more familiar with the Royals last 21 years of baseball where the team has had a total of just three winning seasons with no playoff appearances.  They have only had one winning year (2003), since joining the AL Central in 1994.  They appear to be destined for another sorrowful season this year.  However, tonight is a opportunity to “turn back the clock” as the 1985 World Series team will be honored on the field before the game.  It will also be 80′s night at Kauffman Stadium.  

The White Sox and Jake Peavy (7-5; 4.71 ERA) are going to try and spoil the party.  Peavy has been brilliant in his last few outings, going 3-0 while posting an ERA of 0.78 over his last three starts.  He also has not allowed a run in his last 21 innings on the mound.  Peavy has done well against the Royals in his career but it will not be easy to win tonight.  

Not only have the Royals been hitting well all season, they also send their ace Zach Greinke (3-8; 3.72 ERA) to the hill.  Greinke began the season 1-5, but had no run support as his ERA was amazing.  Now he is still dominating and is finally getting some runs to help him out.  Over his last three outings, he is 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA and has 23 strikeouts.  

This should be an amazing game to see is worth tuning in to just to see the festivities.  It all begins at 8:10 EST, so make sure to watch!  LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!           

The White Sox got off to an early start last night as they
put three runs on the board in the second inning.  

After Mark Kotsay got on base with one out
collecting his 7^th double of the season, he was driven in by A.J.
Pierzynski who hit a line drive to left. 
After Dayan Viciedo would single to center, Gordon Beckham would hit an
RBI single right back up the middle, allowing Pierzynski to score and Viciedo
to move to third.  Juan Pierre would then
ground out to first base for the second out, but Viciedo would touch home,
giving the White Sox a 3-0 lead. 

The Sox would extend their lead to 4-0 when Alexei Ramirez
would drive in Gordon Beckham.  Beckham
had an interesting at bat because during it, Ozzie Guillen and home plate
umpire Tim Timmons would get in a shouting match over the strike zone.  Ozzie would be tossed while still in the
dugout.  He would then walk out to home
plate and give Timmons a piece of his mind. 
While leaving to the visiting clubhouse he would yell at 3^rd
base umpire Jeff Nelson, who was behind home plate last night and had a very
small strike zone for Mark Buehrle.  Good
for Ozzie.  

Now it was up to Joey Cora and the rest of the staff to
manage the White Sox to the win. 
Meanwhile, Gavin Floyd would cruse through the first few innings,
allowing just two singles over the first four innings and walking none.  However, he would find himself in some
trouble in the 5^th.  Alberto
Callaspo would start of the inning with a single, move to second on a wild
pitch, then be driven in on a one out double by Wilson Betemit.  Yuniesky Betancourt would then follow that
with a single, and would advance to second on a bad throw by Carlos
Quentin.  With runners now at second and
third, former White Sox Scott Podsednik would drive them in with a 2-run single
to center to cut the White Sox lead to 4-3. 
Jason Kendall would ground out to third and David DeJesus would ground
out to short however to end the inning and keep the White Sox in front.

Floyd’s final line would be 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs
(2 earned) on seven hits, while allowing no walks and striking out two.  Royals starter Brian Bannister was not as
lucky, only lasting four innings.  He
gave up four runs on eight hits while walking two and striking out four.  The Royals bullpen was solid however, giving
them a chance to come back.  They threw
five shutout innings allowing just four hits during that span. 

The White Sox bullpen would get the job done however, as
Matt Thorton would throw one full inning allowing two hits, but no runs.  Then J.J. Putz would be called upon to get a
four-out save.  With Bobby Jenks not
available, Putz did the job, allowing one hit and walking one, but recording
the final four outs for just his second save of the year.         

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Before the game even began I have to be honest.  I did not feel like this one would go the White Sox way.  Two factors played into that thinking:  First, the White Sox were seeing a pitcher that they had not seen before.  Any true White Sox fan would be able to tell you that for some reason, for the White Sox as of late, this has not been a good sign.  

Royals starter Anthony Lerew got his first win in his major league career throwing six solid innings, allowing just one run on three hits, walking only one while striking out four.  The key to his success was hitting his spots and throwing first pitch strikes.

The second factor that played into my negative thinking was a quiet, yet dangerous Royals lineup.  Coming into the game they had the second highest batting average as a team in the AL (behind the Rangers, who the White Sox will play next).  Now they are tied with the Rangers with a .283 batting average.  

Despite being 20-10 against the Royals in his career, Buehrle has been “eaten alive” by some of the Royals hitters.  That is just what happened, along with some help from home plate umpire  Jeff Nelson.  Buehrle allowed three runs on 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings, but the key was the five walks he allowed as compared to just two strikeouts.  It was his most walks in a game since May of 2003.  

It seemed to me, Buehrle, A.J., Ozzie, and broadcaster Hawk Harrelson that Buehrle’s strike zone was being squeezed like an orange.  The strike zone for Mark had to be one of the smallest I had seen all season.  So in turn, he was forced to throw the ball down the middle to get a strike.  This helped the Royals hitters get off to a good start.  They scored two runs off of three hits and two walks in the first inning, forcing Buehrle to throw 35 pitches.  One of those first inning runs came off the bat of Billy Butler who collected an RBI single.  He added another RBI in second inning, as the Royals recorded three more hits and drew one more walk.  Buehrle would get it together after the rough start to keep the White Sox in the game, but the early pitch count would come back to bite the Sox. 

            

Carlos Quentin’s deep solo homerun to center field in the 4th inning put the White Sox on the board, but the Royals pitching staff would keep the White Sox there until a mild threat occurred in the 9th inning.  With closer Joakim Soria entering the game, the White Sox had a tough task ahead of them.  Soria’s arm and the Royals defense would do all they possibly could to hand the White Sox a victory.  With one out, Paul Konerko would reach on a fielding error by shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt.  Soria would then be a little erratic, as he would walk Carlos Quentin and then hit A.J. Pierzynski on the leg.  That would put the winning run on the base-paths with just one out.  However, Mark Kotsay and Alexei Ramirez would not get the ball out of the infield as they both popped up to second base to record the final two outs to end the game.

The loss puts the White Sox 1 1/2 games back of the Twins and 2 games back of the division leading Tigers, who beat Minnesota 7-5 on Monday night.  If the Sox are going to keep pace, tonight is a must win with the Royals sending Zack Grienke to the mound on Wednesday.          

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Today the White Sox will try to begin another win streak as
they travel to Kansas City to take
on the Royals as Kauffman Stadium beginning at 8:10
EST.  Mark Buehrle (6-6; 4.60
ERA) will take the hill against Anthony Lerew (0-1; 4.76 ERA).  Buehrle has gone 3-0 over his last three
outings with a spectacular 1.80 ERA over that stretch.  Buehrle has 20 wins against the Royals in his
career and will look to get number 21 against a man who is making just his 2^nd
start of the season in place of Luke Hochevar.

On a side note for the White Sox, they could be without
closer Bobby Jenks for the entire series as he has been placed on the Bereavement
List.  He has to stay on the list for
three straight days, meaning he is eligible to return on Wednesday for the
finale of the three game set if he would like. 
Despite not having Jenks, the Sox should have a good opportunity to win
the series and gain some ground on the Twins or the Tigers.  LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!      

The streak is over. 
Yesterday the Chicago White Sox (39-35) lost for the first time since
June 13^th.  The 11-game win
streak came to an end by a loss to the rival Chicago Cubs by a final of
8-6.  The streak began after a 1-0 loss
to the Cubs on the 13^th.  

In yesterday’s game, the White Sox got off to an early lead
thanks to a 2-out 2-run single by Carlos Quentin.  Quentin has been one of the best RBI men for
the White Sox during the win streak.  His
RBI total is now at 48 and has been on the rise a lot lately, with 11 RBI in
his last six games.  Now it was up to
John Danks to hold the lead, and for once as of late, someone on the White Sox
staff had a bad day.  Danks surrendered six
runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out five in just five innings of
work. 

Despite Danks rough outing, the White Sox did have plenty of
opportunities to put some runs on the board. 
The White Sox had a base hit in the first six innings Cubs starter Ryan
Dempster was on the mound.  The trouble
was that they were not able to get many of the base runners into scoring
position.  Dempster gave up nine hits
through his seven innings of work, but allowed just three runs while walking
one and striking out eight.  

The other
run allowed by Dempster was a solo homerun by Paul Konerko in the 6^th
inning.  It was Konerko’s 20^th
homerun of the season, giving him his 11^th season with 20-plus
homeruns, tying him with Frank Thomas for the club record.  The homer cut the Cubs lead to 6-3 at the
time. 

The Cubs got the big lead because of a 3-run blast by Tyler
Colvin in the top of the 3^rd, a 2-run double by Derek Lee in the 5^th
and a Geovany Soto RBI double in the 6^th.  They extended that lead in the 8^th
inning when Alfonso Soriano hit a solo homer to begin the inning off Tony
Pena.  Then Starlin Castro doubled off of
Randy Williams with two outs in the same inning and was then driven in on an
RBI single by Tyler Colvin, his 4^th on the day.  The 8-3 lead looked like the game was all but
over, but the White Sox team fought back. 

Cubs closer Carlos Marmol came into the game to get some
work in and close out the game.  Although
he walked Mark Kotsay and A.J. Pierzynski, he had recorded two outs and looked
like he would get the third as the struggling Gordon Beckham came to the
plate.  However, Gordon had other ideas
as he doubled down the left field line to score Kotsay and cut the lead to
8-4.  The inning would be extended when
Juan Pierre would single to right to drive home two more runs.  Andruw Jones would be walked, and the winning
run would come to the plate.  

The rally
for the White Sox would fall short though as Alex Rios would strike out to end
the game.  The White Sox did thrill their
fans though, trying to fight back and keep the winning streak alive.  It was good to see. 

With an Interleague play best 15-3 mark, and now just 1 ½
games behind Minnesota (41-34) and a game behind the Tigers (40-34), who play
one another in a three game set beginning today will look to gain some ground
as they play the Kansas City Royals (32-44) who are struggling.  The Sox are hoping to gain some ground on
both teams before the upcoming All-Star break on July 12^th-14^th. 

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Today at 2:05 EST
the White Sox win try to win their 12^th game in a row as they go for
the series sweep of the Cubs today.  The
White Sox are now just 1 ½ games behind the division leading Twins and are tied
with the Tigers for 2^nd in the division at 39-34.  John Danks (7-5; 3.23 ERA) will try to continue
an amazing streak by the staring staff on the South Side.  He has dominated the National League and will
look to do that one more time.  

Danks
will face off against Ryan Dempster (5-6; 3.56 ERA) who is just trying to get
the struggling Cubs a win.  The Cubs have only been swept one time this season and have yet to be 10-games under .500 this season.  The Cubs will have
a tough time against Danks however as he is 2-0 against them with a 0.90 ERA in
20 innings.  It should be another good
story in this rivalry.  LET’S GO WHITE
SOX!!!     

If you are on the fence of who should be at first base in
the All-Star game, Paul Konerko just gave you another reason to vote for
him.  Once again he lifted his team to
victory on Saturday night against the rival Chicago Cubs.  In the eighth inning after Freddy Garcia gave
up a game tying homer to Aramis Ramirez in the top of the 7^th,
Konerko gave the White Sox the lead right back in the bottom of the 8^th
with a blast of his own. 

Paulie continues to carry this team on his broad shoulders
when he is asked to do so.  He is now
hitting .302 on the season, leads the team with 19 homeruns and 55 RBI and is
known as “captain clutch” on the South Side.

Ozzie Guillen said this about Konerko on MLB. COM, “One
thing about him, he does not panic in crucial situations.  He is very professional.  With the game on the line, he is more
relaxed, more confident, and concentrates a little bit better.  He has gotten a lot of clutch hits for a long
time.  He is a guy that you get used to
getting good at-bats all the time.”  It’s
so true.  The fans expect it.  Yet, with that pressure, Konerko
delivers.  I wish I could find how many
game winning hits Konerko has delivered this season, it seems as if it would be
a lot. 

The 3-2 victory for the White Sox looked to be in hand early
with the Sox taking an early lead and Freddy just being Freddy.  The White Sox scored the first run of the
game when Gordon Beckham lead off the 3^rd inning with a triple.  

After two quick outs, Chicago’s
hottest hitter in Alex Rios delivered with a single to center field.  The 1-0 lead was held there until the top of
the 6^th when Derek Lee would drive an RBI single into center
field.  Now with just one out and runners
on 1^st and 2^nd, Garcia looked to be in his first jam of
the day.  However he would make a great
pitch on Xavier Nady who would ground into the double play to end the inning.

The White Sox would take the lead back against Carlos Silva
in the bottom half of the inning without getting a hit.  Paul Konerko drew a lead off walk, then
Carlos Quentin was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game.  Quentin has to lead baseball in being hit by
a pitch since entering the league.  Mark
Kotsay would then fly out to center field, as Paul Konerko would tag up and go
to third base.  

Alexei Ramirez would then
fly out to right field and once again, Konerko would tag up; this time giving
the White Sox the 2-1 lead.  That would
be Carlos Silva’s final inning as he would throw six solid innings allowing two
runs on just three hits, hitting two batters, walking one and striking out
four.  He would not factor into the
decision. 

The lead for the Sox would not last long as Aramis Ramirez
would lead off the 7^th inning with a deep homer to right
center.  Garcia was not too happy about
giving up the homer as that would prevent him from getting the win today.  Alfonso Soriano would follow the homerun with
a double to left and then be sacrificed to third by Starlin Castro.  However the Cubs would not be able to get the
lead off Garcia.   

He would strike out
Geovany Soto and then get Ryan Theriot to ground out to short to end the
inning.  Garcia would allow two runs on
eight hits, while striking out five and allowing no walks.  It was another quality start for a White Sox
pitcher, their 16^th one over the past 17 games.  The starters are 12-1 with a 1.91 ERA over
that span.    

Hard throwing Andrew Cashner would enter the game for Silva
and give up the lead to Konerko and the White Sox by throwing him a 100 mph
fastball.  J.J. Putz would get the win
today by throwing a perfect 8^th inning.  Matt Thorton would collect his third save of
the season and give the White Sox their 11^th straight win and give
them a streak of winning 15 out of their last 16 games.  

The win would also give the White Sox the 1^st
annual BP Crosstown Cup.  Omar Vizquel,
the 42 year old who has yet to win a World Series was told by Paul Konerko he
would hoist the Cup and get a great ovation from the fans.  

Appropriately, he would pass it to Paul
Konerko who would receive chants of “Paulie, Paulie.”  Way to go White Sox.  The win coupled with the Tigers loss puts
them in a tie for 2^nd in the AL Central and just 1½ games behind the
division leading Twins.                          

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The run the White Sox are on has been well documented.  Can it continue?  Ozzie believes so.  ”I have faith in this team, I think we can turn this thing around.  I think we can have a fun summer.  I think with the talent we have, we should play the game the way we are playing right now.”  Because of the run the Sox have made, they now are in striking distance of Minnesota and Detroit.  Freddy Garcia (8-3; 4.85 ERA) will take the mound against Carlos Silva (8-2; 3.01 ERA).  If the White Sox can win, they will have won the season series and the first annual Crosstown Cup.  Garcia has a great chance to do just that today as he is 4-0 with a 1.25 ERA against the North Siders in five starts.  Silva was undefeated the last time he took the mound, and has now dropped two straight games.  It should be a good one that I will sadly miss.  I have a friends wedding that I am attending today, but I am wearing my White Sox tie to the wedding in support.  LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Marshall from How I Met your Mother:  “How many times bro?  Lilly guessed eight, but I know my boy got to
double digits.”  Yes, the White Sox win
streak has now reached double digits with a 6-0 win against the rival Cubs
yesterday.  The matchup of Jake Peavy and
Carlos Zambrano was to be the story.  It
was that, just not in the way we thought.  

Peavy was dominant.  For the
second game in a row he did not allow a run. 
He threw seven shutout innings, allowed just three hits, walked only two
while striking out nine.  He should have
been the headline.  However Carlos
Zambrano and his “explosive” personality stole it away. 

In the bottom of the first inning, the White Sox hit
Zambrano very hard as his sinker-ball was not yet sinking.  Juan Pierre led off the game with a double by
first baseman Derek Lee that he had no chance of getting to.  One batter later, he would be driven home by
a double down the third base line by Alex Rios to give the White Sox a 1-0
lead.  After a Paul Konerko single to
left that moved Rios to third one of the White Sox hottest hitters as of late
came to the plate.

Carlos Quentin has been tearing it up as of late and
yesterday was no exception.  Going into
the day in his previous eight games, Quentin had a batting average of .393,
with three homeruns and 10 RBI.  Against
Zambrano he took a 0-2 hanger into the left field seats for a 3-run blast.  He gave the White Sox a 4-0 lead with his 12^th
homerun of the season and raised his RBI total to 46 on the season.  Zambrano would get the next two batters out
to end the inning, but that is where the real fireworks would begin. 

On the final out of the inning, A.J. Pierzynski would hit a
ground ball to first baseman Derek Lee, Zambrano ran over to cover first base
and stomped his foot on the bag in frustration for the out.  As he walked to the dugout he began waving
his arms and screaming profanities at the top of his lungs.  

He reached the dugout and the temper tantrum
was still being thrown.  He then got in
an argument with Derek Lee.  It boiled
over so much that Lou Pinella and the staff had to get in the middle of
it.  Zambrano was told to go to the
locker room and leave the stadium.  His
day was over and the headline was stolen from Peavy. 

Tom Gorzelany would enter the game and do quite well.  Through 3 1/3 innings Gorzelany allowed just
one walk and struck out four batters. 
However he did allow one hit, and it was by an unlikely character.  Gordon Beckham hit just his second homer of
the season as he gave the White Sox a 5-0 lead to begin the 5^th. 

In the 6^th, Carlos Quentin would lead off the
inning with his 15^th double of the season.  After a Mark Kotsay walk and an Alexei
Ramirez single, the bases were now loaded. 
Gordon Beckham would hit a sacrifice fly to left to extend the White Sox
lead to 6-0.  The White Sox would get no
more base-runners the remainder of the game, but enough damage had been
done. 

Jake Peavy would end his day after seven full innings.  Over the last 21 innings, Peavy has allowed
no runs.  He has been amazing, and
continues a streak of spectacular starts by this staff.  They have won 14 out of their last 15 games
the starting staff has been carrying the team while giving the bullpen a needed
rest after being depleted earlier in the season.  Over that stretch, the starting staff has a
record of 12-1 with an ERA of just 1.90 over that span.  All 15 have been quality starts.  Before this run, the White Sox starting staff
had an ERA of 5.20.  It is clearly the
year of the pitcher.  The White Sox
starting staff has been just part of that storyline.  

Edwin Jackson no-hit the Tampa Bay Rays
yesterday on 149 pitches.  There have
been four no-hitters this season, two of them perfect games, and it should have
been more.  What a year for
baseball.       

The great starts have allowed Ozzie Guillen to use the
bullpen the way he desires.  Sergio
Santos and Tony Pena finished off the Cubs yesterday and raised the White Sox
record to 38-34.  But it has not been all
pitching for the Sox.  The White Sox
offense has picked it up as well.  Over
the run, they have put together a .286 team average while scoring 78 runs.  They also have an average just under .400
with runners in scoring position during that same span. 

With the win, along with the Twins and Tigers losses, the
White Sox are now just 1 ½ games behind the division leading Twins and just a ½
game behind the Tigers for second place. 
They have even fought back to a respectable deficit in the wild-card
race as they now trail Tampa Bay
and Boston by just 4 ½ games.  Today the White Sox will try to win their 11^th
straight game and lock up the 1^st Annual Cross-town Cup against the
rival Cubs.