But let’s be clear: the Chicago White Sox are still utterly, pathetically hopeless against Jeremy Guthrie. Dead squirrels have mounted greater resistance to riding mowers. With nine shutout innings in Saturday night’s 2-0 Royals victory, Guthrie’s ERA against the White Sox since he joined the Royals dropped to 0.40 in 44.2 innings. It didn’t have very far to drop, but it did. Just a little bit.

Save for a two-out rally in the fourth inning that brought Conor Gillaspie–essentially the team MVP–to the plate with Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn on second and third, the White Sox never threatened Guthrie– hat was actually the only time the White Sox had a runner reach third base. Conor Gillaspie whiffing on a slider low and in to strand two felt a little inevitable since the White Sox struggle too much to get a single runner on base to be counted to put on three in a row, but it also served as the largest blip of competition during what was mostly some sort of Kansas City Royals training exercise.

Or maybe, if we take a longer view, the game ceased being competitive when a sinking Lorenzo Cain linder curled beyond Alex Rios diving, outstretched glove and kicked to the wall in the first inning. The triple scored Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler, who had previously given Dylan Axelrod the evil eye for plunking him in the elbow pad with 86 mph heat. Perhaps he foresaw all the running he would be subjected to.

While the Royals would put runners in scoring position the next two innings–including a leadoff triple from Hosmer–and Axelrod’s breaking stuff wasn’t particularly sharp, the sixth-starter extraordinaire labored through 7.2 innings without any further harm. He did that in spite of some truly horrific defense which included two Alexei Ramirez errors, uncomfortable carom work in left by Alejandro De Aza and even a throwing error from Axelrod himself.

It wasn’t pretty window dressing, but it was also purposeless, since the White Sox never had the slightest notion of scoring. They are bad at scoring. They can’t score. Their offense is terrible, which means their defense costs them nothing.

Team Record: 12-16

Box Score

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

Royals (47-63): 2
White Sox (60-50): 1

He's just as surprised as you are. (Peter G. Aiken-US PRESSWIRE)

The White Sox did begin with a disadvantage of their own, being without Alex Rios (stiff back) and Paul Konerko (aches and pains). The lack of offense certainly shone through. Alejandro De Aza stroked a pair of hits in his return from a sore back of his own but beyond that there wasn’t much cooking. Guthrie worked through the lineup time after time without walking anybody and striking out 6.

Youngsters Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas were all that kept this game from being virtually void of offense on both sides. Moustakas struck first with 2nd inning blast and Perez added a solo shot of his own in the 4th. Guthrie did not come out for the 9th to finish what he started, instead the Sox had an opportunity to make it interesting against Greg Holland. And they did. Adam Dunn launched a double and came around to score on a single up the middle by A.J. Pierzynski. In the end, it was a too little too late scenario. That run would be the only that the Sox could manage.

Plus: Jose Quintana is not broken. I worried a little bit, after he was handed another no-decision 3 starts ago in a game he clearly should have won with ease. But the ship has been righted and we got another quality performance from the young Colombian.

Minus: Where are you, offense? Can’t win games without scoring runs. Can’t score runs without getting hits. The concept is easy, the execution is difficult. This time it was difficult against a guy that was probably a pair of starts away from a DFA. There is a silver lining though: the Yankees finally got it together against the Tigers and the Sox get to remain in first.

Player of the Game
A.J> Pierzynski – .053 Win Probability added

Source: FanGraphs

Robin Ventura built up some momentum last night by calling for a Jordan Danks sacrifice bunt with Ray Olmedo standing in the on-deck circle. White Sox fans went wild. What greatness! When Danks popped the bunt up, enabling the Royals to double A.J. Pierzynski off of second, it became the type of thing I’d like to print out and hang on the refrigerator. Speaking of refrigerator material, tonight’s lineup is building off of yesterday’s managerial momentum and threatening to bump your child’s report card into the trash:

1. De Aza – CF
2. Gordo – 2B
3. Dunn – 1B
4. Youk – 3B
5. AJ – C
6. Alexei – SS
7. Dayan – LF
8. Danks – RF
9. Hudson – DH

De Aza and Youkilis have returned, and that’s a boon to the lineup. However that benefit is quickly negated with the absence of Paul Konerko and Alex Rios. This puts our old friend Orlando Hudson at DH. Hudson has had a total of 12 ABs since June, so sub-Mendoza average aside, he may not be too sharp out there. Of course, to truly blame Ventura for all of this would be a bit silly. Rios is sitting with a sore back (nothing to worry about) and though Paulie’s reason for sitting is as yet unstated, I’m sure it’s not just an ordinary day off. The fact of the matter is, with 2 starters sitting, the bench just doesn’t have the depth to plug quality players in at multiple positions.

Jose Quintana has struggled since his outing at Fenway when he gave 8 shutout innings to be handed a no-decision at game’s end. The start that preceded that came in Kansas City, where these Royals got him for 5 runs in 5 innings.

Jeremy Guthrie, the Royals starter, is a recent addition to the team, having been traded there for Jonathan Sanchez. His services have amounted to little more than tossing some balls in the direction of the catcher in his time wearing the royal blue. He’s given up 14 runs in just over 16 innings pitched, which isn’t terribly far off of the pace he set for himself while in Colorado during the first portion of 2012.

O-Dog at DH or not, the White Sox should be able to put some serious runs on the board tonight and take this series, keeping Detroit at bay for at least another day.