Kansas City Royals at White Sox Notes

White Sox strength of remaining schedule from Chicago Trib:

Kansas City still has six games left with Detroit. They also have two series remaining with the Cleveland Indians. They play only two over-.500 teams the rest of the way: the White Sox and the Yankees.

And they've got four dates remaining with the Devil Rays.

The White Sox, meanwhile, have it rough. They have two series with the Yankees, two more with Boston and one with the A's. They get to face Detroit and Cleveland only once more. Plus they have to travel to Anaheim for four games with the defending world champions. Sox are 8-30 on the West Coast since 2001.

If you're a Sox fan looking for a positive, here it is: the Sox have 28 games left on the South Side and 23 on the road.

This is significant because the Sox are 33-20 at U.S. Cellular Field and 25-33 away from it.

The Royals, meanwhile, play 23 at home and 30 on the road.

They'll be at Kauffman Stadium for their final four games of the season. Their opponent? The White Sox.

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It was the second straight blowout loss for a Sox team that had gone 13-1 since July 18 to move to within one percentage point of a first-place tie with Kansas City. Now the Sox trail by two games after the Royals' weekend victories over Tampa Bay.

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Who's hot: Colon is 3-0 with a 1.52 ERA in his last three starts. Lefty reliever Scott Schoeneweis struck out all three batters he faced Sunday. Paul Konerko went 10-for-23 (.435) with four homers on the six-game road trip.

Who's not: Frank Thomas is hitless in his last 16 at-bats and is batting .237 as a designated hitter (and .352 as a first baseman). Magglio Ordonez is 0-for-14 since batting .641 (25-for-39) during a 10-game hitting streak.

After firing a pitch Thursday in Kansas City, Sox closer Tom Gordon couldn't help but look at the stadium scoreboard for a reading from the radar gun. The number he saw amazed him: 98. "I couldn't believe it," Gordon said. Even in his heyday in Boston, when he converted 54 saves in a row from 1998-99, Gordon rarely threw higher than 94 m.p.h. Anything over 94, 95, I was trying to do too much," he said. "If I stayed between 92-94, I was fine, under control." Now, at 35, Gordon is throwing serious heat. He attributes it to the time he took off after undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery following the 1999 season

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Neal Cotts had another dominant performance for Double-A Birmingham on Saturday. The 23-year-old lefty fired seven shutout innings against Huntsville, yielding only three hits. He struck out seven batters and walked none. "Neal has deception in his delivery and a plus fastball," general manager Ken Williams said. "He can change up on you and throw you a breaking ball. "It's very exciting to have him in organization, and he's coming fast." Cotts improved to 9-6 with a 2.24 ERA. He has struck out 124 batters in 1001/3 innings while yielding only 60 hits.

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Entering Sunday's game, the Sox had a .256 batting average on the road and a .255 batting average at home. Where the Sox do have an advantage at home is in the home-run department. They have hit 86 homers at home, compared with 60 on the road. Aaron Rowand delivered his fifth homer of the season with a solo shot Sunday.

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KC Royals

Prized prospect Jimmy Gobble arrived Saturday and made his major-league debut in today's series finale against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Kauffman Stadium. In his last six starts for Wichita, Gobble is 4-2, allowing just six earned runs in 402/3 innings for a 1.32 ERA. He also struck out 32 and walked just 11 in that period.

Gobble's promotion merely fills the void created by the decision to shift Jeremy Affeldt to the bullpen because of his ongoing problem with blisters on the middle finger of his pitching hand. Jeremy Affeldt's reeled off two perfect innings and got the first save of his professional career last night

Gobble pitched six shutout innings and, after sinking the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2-0 at Kauffman Stadium, his first big league victory was in the books. After Chicago lost at Seattle, the Royals' lead over the White Sox grew to two games. Pennant-race pressure apparently didn't occur to Gobble. Gobble gave up six hits and walked just one. His control was startling -- he threw 18 first-pitch strikes and had seven hitters fall behind 0-2.

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Monday is also when right-hander Kevin Appier should clear waivers from Anaheim and could mark the return of Texas outfielder Juan Gonzalez from the disabled list.

The Royals are interested in both. Appier, 35, was 7-7 with a 5.63 ERA in 19 starts for the Angels before getting placed on waivers. The Royals are searching for another starter after placing Jose Lima on the disabled list Saturday because of a strained right groin.

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CENTRAL - RACE W L PCT GB HOME ROAD RS RA STRK L10
Kansas City 59 50 .541 - 31-27 28-23 565 574 Won 2 4-6
Chicago Sox 58 53 .523 2 33-20 25-33 513 487 Lost 2 7-3
Minnesota 55 55 .500 4.5 32-27 23-28 526 551 Won 1 6-4
Cleveland 45 66 .405 15 25-27 20-39 471 549 Lost 4 3-7
Detroit 29 80 .266 30 13-37 16-43 364 583 Lost 1 3-7

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Florida Marlins

The Marlins, who begin a six-game trip Tuesday in St. Louis, didn't lose ground in the wild-card race and remained two games behind Philadelphia, which lost to San Diego. Yesterday's loss ends a 7-2 home stand -- the best three-team homestand since the Marlins went 9-1 in May 1996 -- and both losses came to the Astros, who beat the Marlins 2-1 Friday. Houston is 5-1 against Florida this season.

Houston right-hander Jared Fernandez (1-0, 1.69 ERA) made his first start of the season and stopped the Marlins with a run and three hits for 51/3 innings with a dazzling knuckleball and surprising control.

"The rain in the morning helped out," Fernandez said. "It made it hot and humid. There was a lot of movement on it as it got through the thick air. It's like dropping a feather in a dome full of air currents. You don't where it's going to go, but it's going to go somewhere." Fernandez threw between 56-65 mph most of the game.

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David Hyde of the Sun Sentinel wrote:

OK, so the Marlins lost this series to Houston. OK, so Rodriguez said of his sixth-inning ejection, "I made a mistake." OK, so his bat was missed in the ninth inning, when he could have swung the game.

And, OK, so he was still miffed an hour later at home plate umpire, Justin Klemm, who had just been called up from Double-A for this series.

"He was missing calls all game," Rodriguez said.
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Marlins catcher Ivan Rodríguez, who was hitting .442 over his previous 15 games before yesterday.