(Sports Network) – The Chicago White Sox hope to close out a nine-game road trip with an impressive win streak, as they shoot for their sixth straight victory and a three-game sweep of the Washington Nationals in DC.
The White Sox have won five in a row and are aiming for their second straight sweep. After taking all three matchups in Pittsburgh, they continued to thrive at Nationals Park with wins in the first two portions of the set. In Saturday’s 1-0 win, Jake Peavy tossed a three-hit shutout and struck out seven batters for Chicago, which has won nine of 10 games and improved to 7-1 on the nine-game swing.
“It doesn’t work out often where you get to throw a complete game. And then when you throw a complete game and give up no runs, it just doesn’t happen very often in today’s world,” Peavy said after recording his fourth career shutout. “Things just worked out today.”
Carlos Quentin drove in Omar Vizquel for the game’s lone run in the fourth inning. A.J. Pierzynski added three hits in a winning cause, as the Pale Hose sit 5 1/2 games behind Minnesota for the AL Central lead.
Taking the hill for the White Sox in Sunday’s series finale will be Freddy Garcia, who has won four straight and seven of his last eight starts. He last toed the rubber in a 6-4 win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday despite giving up four runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 innings. Garcia pushed his mark to 7-3 in 12 starts to go along with a 4.94 ERA.
The right-hander is 4-1 in six away starts and has never faced Washington.
The Nationals have dropped five in a row and seven of their last eight games, including yesterday’s tough loss. Nyjer Morgan, Cristian Guzman and Roger Bernadina collected the three hits for Washington.
“[Peavy] had a lot of movement on his stuff,” Morgan said. “He pitched a hell of a game. That’s why he’s one of the top pitchers in the league.”
J.D. Martin was dealt the hard-luck loss and held the White Sox to a run on eight hits in six innings to fall to 0-3 on the season.
John Lannan gets the nod for the Nats on Sunday and he is 2-4 with 5.45 earned run average in 13 starts. He is 0-2 in his last three trips to the mound and was beaten by Detroit the last time out on Tuesday, when he gave up seven runs — six earned — and 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Lannan, who sports an 0-1 mark in five home starts this season, will make his first appearance against the White Sox.
These two teams have not met since 2004 when the Washington franchise was still located in Montreal. The Expos took two of three in that set and also claimed two of three the previous time they met in 2002.