Game Thread: White Sox at Royals

Jonathan Cannon has fired off two consecutive quality starts. Can the offense provide the ammo tonight to back him up for a third?

Another roster update to jump start our game coverage — it seems this thing changes almost daily at this point.

Poor Tim Elko must need to hit .500 to get his call-up. Meanwhile, in 10 at-bats since being DFA’d on April 26, Mr. Zero has been burning it up at Charlotte: .100/.308/.100 with a .408 OPS. Sure. Please make it make sense to me, White Sox.

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Jonathan Cannon gets the ball tonight as he goes for his third straight win and quality start. His last two outings have been good enough to keep the South Siders in the game, and surprisingly, the bullpen didn’t blow it. Maybe we can keep the streak going tonight. I personally would very much appreciate the win, as I have yet to cover a victory. That wears on a gal, you know?

The righthander is 2-3 on the season with a 4.26 ERA and 1.45 WHIP. Free passes continue to plague him, with a 4.03 BB/9, which is a significant increase from the 2.90 he had last year. However, his 7.58 K/9 is solid and has improved by a point from 2024’s 6.59. Here’s a look at how he’s profiling overall.

Baseball Savant

The offense that will attempt to provide him with some run support is still terrible, with a .217 team BA. If it makes you feel any better, that has actually bolstered up a bit since I last reported it to you two weeks ago when it was .201. Most of the credit for the bump goes to Edgar Quero, who is slashing .291/.391/.345, and Miguel Vargas, who has been on a heater since adjusting his swing, hitting .321/.419/.472 over his last 15 games. Also, it’s hard to believe it, but things could be worse as the Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies sit below the White Sox overall in team BA.

Here’s how skipper Will Venable will run them out.

With a 1-4 record and a 3.52 ERA, Michael Wacha takes the mound for the Royals, and his performance has arguably been better than those numbers suggest. In seven starts, he’s surrendered more than three runs only once. So, that probably means he shuts out the Good Guys. Now in his second year with Kansas City, Wacha provided veteran stability to their rotation last season, posting a 13-8 record with a 3.35 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP.

Scoring has been a bit of an issue for the Royals despite having one of the best players in baseball, Bobby Witt Jr., on their squad. While they still own a +5 run differential, they’ve only scored 127 runs, tying them for 24th in all of baseball with, yes, you guessed it correctly, the White Sox.

This is how KC will line them up tonight.

You can watch the broadcast on CHSN at 6:40 p.m. CST. Don’t have CHSN or the antenna? Tune in to Len Kasper and Darin Jackson on the radio call at ESPN 1000.