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White Sox-Royals Preview

Jun 30, 2010 - 5:15 AM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Chicago (39-36) at Kansas City (33-44), 8:10 p.m. EDT

Chicago White Sox right-hander Jake Peavy is starting to show the stuff that earned him a Cy Young Award. So is Kansas City's Zack Greinke.

Peavy will look to extend his 21-inning scoreless stretch Wednesday when the visiting White Sox try to snap Greinke's recent stretch of solid outings.

The 2007 NL Cy Young winner while with San Diego, Peavy got off to a poor start in his first full season with the White Sox, going 4-5 with a 5.90 ERA in 12 starts.

Peavy (7-5, 4.71 ERA), though, thrived against NL opponents in his last three starts, winning each outing while posting a 0.78 ERA. He struck out a season high-tying nine and gave up three hits in Friday's 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The right-hander is now two innings of shy of matching his career-best scoreless stretch.

"Great job, once again. Outstanding," manager Ozzie Guillen told the White Sox's official website. "Four runs in the first inning helped. But in the meanwhile, he didn't sit around and think about those four runs. He wanted to shut it down, and he did."

Peavy, 4-1 with a 3.77 lifetime ERA versus the Royals, will look to win his fifth straight start against Kansas City (33-45) following Chicago's 4-3 victory on Tuesday. The White Sox (40-36), who had dropped their previous two following an 11-game winning streak, chased Royals starter Brian Bannister after four innings.

"I still have failed to come up with a solution for the lineup," Bannister said after giving up four runs and eight hits. "It seems like every time I play against them they come up with a creative way to beat me or something happens. ... They are the one team that gives me more headaches."

The White Sox have done the same thing to Greinke (3-8, 3.72), who is 5-10 with a 4.46 ERA in 19 starts against them. He'll make his first start versus Chicago this season after going 2-2 with a 2.31 ERA in five starts against them during his 2009 Cy Young season.

Greinke was far from last season's form in his first 13 starts - going 1-8 with a 4.05 ERA. The right-hander, however, is 2-0 with a 2.63 ERA in his last three outings, striking out 23 while walking just two during that stretch.

"He's put together three pretty good starts here in a row," manager Ned Yost said after Greinke gave up two runs and seven hits over eight innings of Friday's 4-2 win over St. Louis. "He's gaining velocity on his fastball. His command's been a lot better. He's really pitching terrific."

Paul Konerko, who is batting .067 against the Royals this season, knows all about Greinke's command. The White Sox first baseman is 7 for 51 lifetime versus the Royals ace.

A.J. Pierzynski has fared much better against Greinke, going 16 for 40 with two homers. Pierzynski is batting .335 in 66 career games in Kansas City.

Royals first baseman Billy Butler, hitting .444 against the White Sox this season, is 3 for 8 with two homers lifetime against Peavy.