With Carlos Rodon struggling and two other rotation spots currently able to be charitably described as “questionable,” it’s pretty damn nice having Chris Sale and Jose Quintana back-to-back in the rotation. Sure, losing streaks and bumps in the road will still happen but having two legitimate aces going consecutive games at least gives your team a pretty good chance to start a new winning streak every time the rotation rolls over.
Quintana takes the mound leading the American League in ERA+ (255), FIP (2.19), and HR/9 (0.2). If you had told White Sox fans after 2013 that three years into the future Quintana would have only given up one home run by May 20 of the 2016 season, they would have laughed at you as soon as the shock of time travel wore off. But other than his lone solo shot to Hanley Ramirez at the start of the month, no one else has managed to take him deep this year. And with the Royals currently tied with the White Sox for 13th in the AL in home runs with 37, that number has a good chance of not going up Friday night.
The reining World Champions got off to a good enough start this season, but a five game losing streak to end April has seen them no higher than two games over .500 since the start of May. 20-20 isn’t the record they were hoping to have at this point, but it’s better than where their Pythagorean record says it should sit (18-22).
So why are they struggling so much? Their offense has been terrible. The popular narrative that the Royals were so successful with great defense, great pitching and just enough offense is kind of like the Ozzieball narrative from 2005: true to a point, but mostly gimcrack and bunkum. The 2014 and 2015 Royals’ offenses ranked ninth and sixth in the AL, respectively, in R/G. The 2016 model is 14th, sitting a mere 0.02 R/G ahead of the anemic Twins. When Mike Moustakas returns from a thumb injury on Saturday, he’ll join Eric Hosmer as the only regular in the lineup having a better than league average season.
Former Mets back of the rotation stalwart Dillon Gee takes the bump for the Royals in what will be only his second start of the season. The Royals had been using him out of the bullpen until the rest of the rotation collapsed in a miserable heap of injury. At first glance, pitching out of the bullpen seems to have agreed pretty well with Gee. But that’s a lie. He’s out-pitching his peripherals considerably with a 4.87 FIP lurking behind the facade of his 3.12 ERA. His .274 BABIP and 88.8 percent LOB can’t hold up forever though, so it’s only a matter of time before his lack of stuff and mediocre control catch up to him.
Great news for fans who like lineups that aren’t groan-inducing: Jose Abreu is batting second! In a move that would lead to at least five innings worth of Hawk Harrelson complaining, Robin Ventura seems to have finally realized that maybe inserting Austin Jackson, Carlos Sanchez, Tyler Saladino and Jimmy Rollins in the two-hole no matter what is a poor strategy. Friday’s lineup is one of the more palatable ones we’ve seen all year and looks one bat away from being a pretty good one.
White Sox Lineup:
- Adam Eaton- RF
- Jose Abreu- 1B
- Todd Frazier- 3B
- Melky Cabrera- LF
- Brett Lawrie- 2B
- Avisail Garcia- DH
- Alex Avila- C
- Austin Jackson- CF
- Tyler Saladino- SS
Royals Lineup:
- Alcides Escobar- SS
- Lorenzo Cain- CF
- Eric Hosmer- 1B
- Kendrys Morales- DH
- Salvador Perez- C
- Alex Gordon- LF
- Cheslor Cuthbert- 3B
- Omar Infante- 2B
- Paulo Orlando- RF
Lead Photo Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports