Game 108 Open Thread: Chicago White Sox (51-55) vs. Kansas City Royals (63-44)

There has been some angst among Royals fans after a disappointing series in Toronto and Detroit where the Royals dropped five out of seven ballgames. While any stretch of bad play should allow for some introspection as to what the team is doing wrong, we should also recognize that the Royals are a very good baseball team and that (a) very good baseball teams some times have bad weeks; and (b) very good baseball teams tend to lose on the road against other good teams.

The Royals have dropped nine of thirteen games on the road against likely American League playoff contenders - New York, Houston, Los Angeles, and Toronto. That's not good. But everyone else is losing on the road too.

Among, KCR/NYY/HOU/LAA/TOR, here is their road record against each other: KCR: 4-9 NYY: 5-7 HOU: 3-7 LAA: 3-10 TOR: 3-7

— Royals Review (@royalsreview) August 7, 2015

These are small samples and aren't predictive of anything of course, but in general, it is hard to win on the road against good team. This is common sense. So maybe don't freak out about one bad series in Toronto.

Besides, the beatable White Sox are in town. At our place.

John Danks shut us down pretty well last time, and has been pitching better lately. Danks throws one of the least-effective change-ups in baseball, and he throws it a lot, so the Royals hitters will need to show some patience and wait on it tonight.

Steady Eddie goes for the Royals. Big Ed has a 2.74 ERA at home, much lower than his road ERA of 3.66, despite a much lower strikeout rate at Kauffman. He's gone six innings or more in each of his last four starts, and has a 2.48 ERA over his last six starts.

LINEUP!

.#Royals vs. White Sox, 7:10 pm, FSKC pic.twitter.com/bOq7ZPCwFL

— Blair Kerkhoff (@BlairKerkhoff) August 7, 2015