Andre Rienzo, still searching for his first career decision, aims to pitch the Chicago White Sox to a fifth straight win on Wednesday night as he toes the rubber in the middle portion of a three-game set versus the Kansas City Royals.
Rienzo has allowed three runs or fewer in three of his first four Major League starts, but the White Sox are just 1-3 in that span. He faced Minnesota for the second straight outing on Thursday and hurled six innings, giving up two runs -- one earned -- on four hits without a walk.
He exited in line for the victory, but the Twins rallied late to hand the White Sox a defeat.
"I believe in the guys and the guys tried hard to get a win and I tried hard to give them a chance to win," Rienzo said of his outing. "Next time maybe I'll be better and help the team."
The 25-year-old righty has a 3.70 earned run average and faces the Royals for the first time in what will be his fourth career road start.
Chicago has not lost since Rienzo's last start, winning three straight at Minnesota before Tuesday night's 2-0 triumph in Kansas City.
John Danks hurled eight scoreless innings, working around seven hits and a walk to give the White Sox their 10th victory in 15 games since dropping 10 in a row.
"I was able to throw the ball over the plate and thankfully we scored enough," Danks said.
Avisail Garcia tallied three hits for Chicago, Gordon Beckham smacked a solo homer and Addison Reed notched his 32nd save of the year with a scoreless ninth.
Ervin Santana allowed two runs -- one earned -- on four hits and two walks over six frames for Kansas City, which has dropped three straight and six of its last eight tilts to fall 8 1/2 games behind Detroit for first place in the AL Central.
"Pitching was good enough for us to win tonight, defense was good enough for us to win tonight, but offensively, it wasn't," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said.
Yost is likely to start Mike Moustakas at third base tonight. Moustakas has played just once since suffering a left calf strain on Aug. 12.
The second overall pick of the 2007 draft will try to spark the offense and make things easier for Jeremy Guthrie, who gets the start having allowed nine runs and 23 hits over back-to-back setbacks to Boston and Detroit.
The 34-year-old righty had given up just eight runs over four straight wins prior to his losing streak, but his now 12-9 with a 4.15 ERA in 25 starts this season.
Guthrie is 6-6 with a 3.30 ERA in 19 career meetings with the White Sox, including 17 starts, and beat them the first two times he faced them in 2013 before getting shelled in the most recent encounter on June 21. He was charged with six runs on five hits and three walks over just 2 1/3 frames of a loss.
Kansas City is 7-6 against Chicago this season with four of those wins coming in the Windy City.
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