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Gamethread: Royals at White Sox, Round 2 ... FIGHT!

September notoriously has been Reynaldo's month of utter dominance in his young career, so don't be surprised if you started getting no-no notifications from your At-Bat app after the sixth tonight!
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Smoke 'em if you got 'em: Can Reynaldo López repeat his one-hitter magic against the Royals tonight? (Clinton Cole/South Side Hit Pen)

Well after last night went to the dogs (for the Royals, that is), the Sox look to the fiery, red-hot right arm of young Reynaldo López to seal a series win against Kansas City in their penultimate matchup for the 2019 season.

Reynaldo (9-12, 5.17 ERA) is coming off perhaps the most dominant White Sox pitching performance of the 2019 season, a complete game, 11 K, one-hit shutout of the Lindians in Cleveland. And that one blemish was courtesy of the questionable fielding prowess of noted right fielder (le sigh ...) Ryan Goins.

Anywho, López has had an up-and-down season pitching against the Royals despite Kansas City willingly employing Billy Hamilton for most of 2019. López is 2-2 with a 6.46 ERA in his last five starts against the K.C. Not So Special Anymores. The two wins have been six-inning quality starts, while the two defeats have been less than stellar. But seeing as September notoriously has been Reynaldo's month of utter dominance in his young career, so don't be surprised if you started getting no-no notifications from your At-Bat app after the sixth tonight!

His counterpart is the man with the slippery change up, Glenn Sparkman, who you may recall was the unfortunate recipient of a very quick hook when a wayward changeup collided with the helmet of the one White Sox player the Royals probably didn't want to antagonize any further.

Sparkman, in general, has been quite terrible for a quite terrible Royals team in 2019. The owner of a 3-11 record and 5.97 ERA, Glenn has the ironic honor of giving up 27 home runs this season, the exact same number Reynaldo has served! So the Sox offense will likely be happy if Glenn learned to control his pitches just a skosh and lasted a few innings more this time ... just long enough for them push ol Spark Man to the 30+ mark.

Lineups!!!

First for the visiting ... Kansas City Royals ...

And now for YOUR CHICAGOOOOOOO WHITE SOX!

Game time is 7:10 PM CST and you can support fledgling cable channel NBC Sports Chicago by using your eyes and ears to watch on your telly. If you enjoy Ed, DJ, and the occasional K-A-R-S Kars-4-Kids commercial to tickle your eardrums, turn that dial to WGN 720 AM. I will return for the recap of this scintillating September soirée!