(Photo credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images)

No matter the season or personnel, the Kansas City Royals have dominated the Chicago White Sox at home in recent years.

Looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat, the Royals will aim for a 15th straight home victory over the White Sox in the opener of a four-game set Thursday night.

Since Aug. 10, 2022, Kansas City is 22-2 vs. the White Sox at Kauffman Stadium and has not lost to its American League Central rival there since Sept. 6, 2023. Perhaps more impressive, the Royals have outscored Chicago 71-17 during their 14-game home winning streak in the series.

However, these Royals have scuffled out of the gate, losing seven of the first 12 games in 2026. After winning 4-2 at Cleveland on Monday, Kansas City managed three runs, six hits, went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position and struck out 28 times in losing the final two contests of that three-game set.

'It's just getting a good plan at the plate,' star shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. told the Royals' official website. 'Apply pressure to other teams. Got to get back to doing that. ... Just time to get back to playing our baseball.'

Witt went 4-for-22 as the Royals split a six-game homestand against Minnesota and Milwaukee earlier this month. However, he's batting .476 with four home runs and 18 RBIs during a 21-game hitting streak against the White Sox.

Thursday's scheduled Kansas City starter, Seth Lugo (1-0, 1.59 ERA), has yielded just five earned runs over 34 1/3 innings in going 3-0 in five career starts vs. Chicago.

The veteran right-hander is off to a solid start in 2026. He allowed his first two runs of the season on Saturday during an 8-2 win over the Brewers, an outing that spanned five innings, 103 pitches and included seven strikeouts.

'Fouled off a lot of pitches, drove my pitch count up,' Lugo said. 'But got through five. That's OK. Obviously, I want to pitch deeper.'

He might be able to go deeper against a White Sox group that totaled six runs while being swept in a three-game home set by Baltimore this week. Chicago managed just 17 hits in the series but lost those three games by a total margin of five runs.

'With all our guys, we're fighting every day to figure out how to support them to be at their best,' White Sox manager Will Venable said.

Second baseman Chase Meidroth was one of the few Chicago hitters off to a solid start, batting .270 before going 0-for-4 in Wednesday's 5-3 loss to the Orioles. Meidroth is hitless in seven career at-bats vs. Lugo.

Teammate and ex-Royal Andrew Benintendi is batting just .194 with 14 strikeouts in 11 games this season, but he's 3-for-10 all time against Lugo.

Chicago is slated to start Anthony Kay (0-0, 4.00 ERA), who has allowed only a two-run homer in each of his first two outings of 2026. The left-hander, who broke into the majors in 2019 with Toronto, has just four career wins, with his most recent coming in 2021.

Kay's only career appearance against the Royals came with the Blue Jays in 2021, when he yielded five runs and six hits over 3 1/3 innings.

--Field Level Media