White Sox at Royals
The performance of Avisail Garcia has been one of the early-season surprises in baseball, and he looks to continue his hot start when the Chicago White Sox visit the Kansas City Royals for the third contest of their four-game series on Wednesday. Garcia reached base four times during Tuesday's 6-0 victory, going 2-for-2 while drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch, to raise his American League-best average to .382.
The 25-year-old Garcia sat out the series opener due to a groin injury, but his strong effort in his return leaves him 7-for-15 with six runs scored in four games against the Royals this season. Geovany Soto contributed two hits and two RBIs for Chicago, which has won seven of its last nine games and scored six or more runs on six occasions in that span. Kansas City recorded only four hits on Tuesday while falling to the White Sox for the fourth time in five meetings this season. The Royals, who have dropped 10 of their last 11 overall games, continue to struggle to light up the scoreboard as their 69 runs scored are easily the fewest in the majors.
TV: 8:15 p.m. ET, CSN Chicago Plus, FSN Kansas City
PITCHING MATCHUP: White Sox RH Mike Pelfrey (0-1, 5.00 ERA) vs. Royals RH Nathan Karns (0-2, 6.26)
Pelfrey is making his third start of the season after lasting fewer than five innings in each of the first two. The 33-year-old was cut by Detroit during spring training and is trying to rebound from a poor 2016 campaign in which he went 4-10 with a 5.07 ERA for the Tigers. Pelfrey is 1-4 with a 6.51 ERA in nine career appearances (eight starts) versus the Royals and has been hit hard by Lorenzo Cain (8-for-16), Eric Hosmer (6-for-13), Mike Moustakas (6-for-14, two homers), Alcides Escobar (9-for-23) and Alex Gordon (7-for-18, one homer).
Karns has dropped his last two starts while being rocked for 10 runs and 12 hits in 10 2/3 innings. The 29-year-old was pounded for a career-high four homers in a loss to the Texas on April 21 and has served up six in just 23 frames this season. Karns lost to the White Sox on April 26, when he gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings to fall to 0-2 with a 5.24 ERA in four career starts versus Chicago.
WALK-OFFS
1. White Sox 1B Jose Abreu, who is 1-for-9 in the series after six consecutive two-hit efforts, is 4-for-9 with a homer and three doubles versus Karns.
2. Cain has gone 2-for-27 over his last seven games to see his average drop 80 points to .253.
3. Chicago optioned Jacob May (2-for-36) to Triple-A Charlotte and recalled fellow OF Willy Garcia from the same club.