Game 26 Preview: Chicago White Sox vs. Kansas City Royals (POSTPONED)

The Royals have lost just two series all season, and one of them was the opening series in Chicago against the hated White Sox (the other was against the surprisingly awful Blue Jays). Now is the time for vengeance my friends. Those Sox will be white with fright tonight, for our mighty Royals will bunt them into submission.

Jeremy Guthrie beat the White Sox last August for his first win as a Royal, and since then he has made seventeen starts without losing a game. It is about the quietest streak I can ever recall, and I think its importance is probably up there with Billy Butler's "consecutive series with a hit" streak. Next we'll hear Alcides Escobar has gone 42 Sundays in a row without getting hit by a pitch or something.

Anyway, Jeremy Guthrie has been quite good in a Royals uniform. This will be his twentieth start, and he is 8-3 with a 3.19 ERA with a 2.76 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and he's averaged 6.4 innings per start since joining Kansas City. Sixty pitchers have made at least 20 starts in their Royals career. If his ERA holds, Jeremy would have a better ERA than all but two of them (Roger Nelson and Bob Johnson, both from the early days of the Royals when offense was way down).

Guthrie faces Dylan Axelrod tonight. If your car ever breaks its Dylan Axelrod, you should take it in right away and replace it with ball bearings. Its all ball bearings these days.

Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated thinks its at least time to expect the Royals to break their string of futility this year, if not expect them to be contenders. Is avoiding god awfulness a reasonable expectation anymore or have your expectations risen with the hot start?

UPDATE: Game postponed again. To be rescheduled for Monday afternoon. ROLLING ROOF NOW!