With a 10-0 loss on Thursday, the Chicago White Sox completed their road series against the Kansas City Royals in unceremonious fashion. The Sox were swept in four games, which has become par for the course when they have matched up with Kansas City recently.
If it feels like the White Sox always lose to the Royals, that’s because…they pretty much do.
The four-game sweep this week continued a seemingly impossible streak for the Sox. In their last 19 games against the Royals, the White Sox are now 1-18.
That’s 0-4 in 2025, a 1-12 record against KC in 2024, and two losses to end the season series back in 2023.
The only win over that stretch is a 2-1 win from April 17th, 2024. It was the second game of a double header. Erick Fedde did 5.2 scoreless innings, Gavin Sheets homered, and the Sox improved their record to…3-15.
The last time the White Sox won a series against the Royals was over 700 days ago in mid-May of 2023. That was so long ago that Hanser Alberto was still in Chicago’s everyday lineup.
The Royals are the White Sox worst nightmare
Why do the Sox have such a hard time with the Royals? The most obvious answer is probably the correct one. Kansas City plays a brand of baseball that suffocates you. They play good defense. They have outstanding pitching. They put the ball in play. They take advantage of the mistakes made by opponents.
A team like the White Sox that plays with a lack of fundamentals is always going to be overmatched. The Sox do not play good defense. They do not have a sound approach with runners in scoring position. The Royals play both smart and harder.
This week in Kansas City was domination top to bottom. If it’s a sign of things to come, the White Sox may not get in the win column against the Royals for a long, long time.