Kansas City at Chicago

The White Sox have officially released the Royals from basement duties in the AL Central. It has been an up and down year for the White Sox, but mostly down. They have had some horrible stretches where they just can't win, followed up by periods of righting the ship, only to then sink again. Right now they have dropped eight straight and look like a team that has mailed it in. Kansas City has been quite the opposite. They were headed for another apparent 100 loss season, but the young talent and young pitching began to make progress. The Royals have gone 33-29 over their last 62 games, and that is a long stretch of .500+ baseball. So the reality is, this team is no longer a doormat. Gil Meche has been every bit as good as Mark Buehrle this season and Meche owns a 5-2 mark against the Sox. Also, the KC bullpen (3.96 ERA) is much better than Chicago's (5.24 ERA). KC hits lefties quite well (5.1 runs per game vs. LHP vs. 4.4 vs. righties). Nice value on the underdog here who cares more right now than the favorite.