When most teams look at an upcoming opponent, they probably hope they are getting to miss the teams ace. The White Sox aren’t one of those teams. For several years now the White Sox seem to succeed against the Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, or CC Sabathia types but absolutely struggle against pitchers they’ve never seen before or crafty veteran types like the one they faced Wednesday.
Royals soft-tossing lefty Bruce Chen completely dominated the Sox in the series finale. With the exception of a jam in the sixth, the White Sox couldn’t solve the Royals veteran. Chen went six innings and allowed just one run on four hits and improved to 5-2 on the season. Joakim Soria pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 15th save of the season.
Edwin Jackson pitched ok for the Sox, but with virtually no offense took the loss dropping his record to 5-7 on the season. Jackson went seven innings and allowed four runs on eight hits.
The series was once again a disappointment for the Sox. This week started a stretch of 19 straight games for the Sox against AL Central opponents. After dropping two of three to the last place Royals, the Sox are now just 7-13 against the division. Things don’t get any easier as the Sox now host the Minnesota Twins for a four game series starting Thursday evening at U.S. Cellular Field.