Game XXI: Royals at White Sox

This April feels a whole lot like the May's of 2008-2013.

And honestly, it feels worse. That is the weird phenomenon of being good and having expectations. The Royals used to be our lovable losers. Then they became our lovable World Series champs and Kansas City was one collective blue flame.

Now they are losing again and it isn't quite so lovable. Similar to how it used to be cute for your dog to bite your fingers as a puppy but now he/she is 75 pounds and it actually hurts.

With all that being said, the Royals have another baseball game to play today, wrapping up a three game set against the White Sox and looking to avoid a second consecutive sweep and a seventh consecutive loss.

Nate Karns will take the hill for the good guys and will be opposed by All-Star southpaw Jose Quintana.

After last night's rough outing from Danny Duffy, Karns will be the first date of the Royals' starting rotations' Coming Back Down To Earth reunion tour. Karns gave up six runs in just 4.2 innings last week in Texas.

Quintana, meanwhile, is off to one of the worst starts of his career, losing each of his first four decisions after giving up 16 runs in just 23.1 innings. Today's start will mark Quintana's 23rd start against the Royals, the most starts he has made against a single opponent. In those starts, Quintana has a 4.39 ERA in 143.2 innings.

The Mike Moustakas leadoff experiment will continue today for the Royals:

The #Royals wrap up the series in Chicago with Nathan Karns on the mound. #RaisedRoyal pic.twitter.com/gUjO6Ollek

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) April 26, 2017

While the White Sox will look like this:

#WhiteSox (10-9 | t-2nd in AL CEN) lineup vs. Nathan Karns (RHP) and the #Royals (7-13 | 5th in AL CEN) | https://t.co/8BbfNLlCH3 pic.twitter.com/gznLpWON0E

— Daily Dugout (@DailyDugout) April 26, 2017

Here are some other random factoids for today's game:

• The Royals scored five runs last night, snapping a franchise record eight consecutive games of scoring two runs or fewer. You have to start somewhere.
• Royals #7 prospect Ryan O'Hearn is 15 for his last 34 at Triple-A Omaha with three home runs and two doubles. And even more interesting is the fact that he has had exactly two hits in seven of his last eight games.
• Danny Duffy did something weird last night and got mad at an umpire. He was angry at a balk call, and after the game, he described the call as "garbage."
• Danny Duffy did something normal early this morning by firing up Royals twitter with this tweet:

We will pull together and come out of this. Reason for concern, but i dare somebody to count us out.

— Danny Duffy (@duffkc41) April 26, 2017

This afternoon's game begins at 1:10 PM CDT and can be streamed on MLB.TV or heard on 610 Sports Radio.