The Kansas City Royals’ home dominance of the Chicago White Sox has reached historic proportions.
Looking to run their club-record home winning streak over the White Sox to 13 games, the Royals will welcome veteran right-hander Michael Lorenzen back to mound on Saturday night.
Salvador Perez hit a tiebreaking solo home in the fourth, and star rookie Noah Cameron allowed one run while pitching into the sixth inning of Friday’s 3-1 victory over Chicago.
The Royals have outscored the White Sox 59-13 during a 12-game home winning streak against them. Chicago’s last win at Kansas City came on Sept. 6, 2023. The White Sox are 2-20 there since Aug. 10, 2022.
“We just got to keep at it,” Chicago manager Will Venable said.
While the winning streak is impressive, the Royals’ focus is on trying to reach wild-card position in the American League. Kansas City has won five of its last six games at home overall.
Lorenzen (5-8, 4.61 ERA) will return from the 15-day injured list (oblique strain) to make his first start since July 6. On that day, he struck out seven and allowed two hits with a walk over seven innings of a 4-0 victory at Arizona.
A little more than a week later, however, he was on the shelf. Lorenzen, however, finally is ready to return to the Royals after two minor league rehab outings.
“I feel good,” he told MLB.com. “I just need to iron out some skill stuff from taking that much time off. I feel back to 100 percent.”
Lorenzen is 2-0 with a stellar 2.68 ERA in 10 career appearances (seven starts) against the White Sox. On June 8, he allowed only a two-run homer to Miguel Vargas in the first inning, two walks and fanned seven over six innings of the Royals’ 7-5 road victory.
Saturday’s scheduled Chicago starter, Sean Burke (4-9, 4.26 ERA), allowed four hits and three walks but only Kyle Isbel’s solo homer over 6 1/3 innings of a 4-3 loss at Kansas City on May 6. It was his lone career encounter vs. the Royals. However, the right-hander is 0-2 with a 5.00 ERA in his last five starts overall.
Last weekend, Burke completed just 3 1/3 innings, giving up two runs, five hits and three walks while throwing 88 pitches of a 3-1 loss to Cleveland.
“I felt good with everything,” Burke said. “I didn’t execute some pitches I needed to. I just have to be able to go deeper into games going forward.”
Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. is 0-for-3 against Burke but is batting .531 (34-for-64) with 16 RBIs during a 16-game hitting streak vs. Chicago.
Isbel is batting .395 in 12 games this month.
With a home run Friday, the White Sox’s Lenyn Sosa is hitting .322 with six homers and 12 RBIs in his last 16 contests. He’s never faced Lorenzen.
“Just good swings on good pitches,” Venable said of Sosa. “His bat is dangerous. … He’s done a really nice job.”
–Field Level Media
