Palka looks to keep rolling as Chicago faces Cleveland

Chicago White Sox (59-92, fourth in AL Central) vs. Cleveland Indians (85-66, first in AL Central)

Cleveland; Thursday, 7:10 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: White Sox: James Shields (7-16, 4.53 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 147 strikeouts) Indians: Josh Tomlin (1-5, 6.49 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 37 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Daniel Palka has been as good as it gets for Chicago as of late. He’s batting .375 with six hits and four home runs in the past week. The Indians enter the contest with a 14 and a half-game lead over the Twins in the AL Central. Cleveland is averaging 4.9 RBIs per game this season. Jose Ramirez leads the team with 101 RBIs. The White Sox have dropped their last three ballgames. Chicago’s lineup is slugging .407 on the season, Jose Abreu paces the team with a mark of .473. The Indians won 4-1 in Wednesday’s meeting, Oliver Perez earned his first win of the year.

TOP PERFORMERS: Yolmer Sanchez has 137 hits for the White Sox this season. He’s batting .246 on the year. Avisail Garcia has three home runs and six RBIs over his past 10 games for Chicago. Francisco Lindor is hitting .281 with 173 hits and 35 home runs in 148 games this year for the Indians. Jason Kipnis has three home runs and 13 RBIs over his past 10 games for Cleveland.

LAST 10 GAMES: White Sox: 3-7, .207 batting average, 4.23 ERA, outscored by 17 runs. Indians: 5-5, .234 batting average, 3.80 ERA, outscored opponents by 13 runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.