Palka looks to keep rolling as White Sox face Cubs

Chicago Cubs (89-63, first in NL Central) vs. Chicago White Sox (60-92, fourth in AL Central)

Chicago; Friday, 4:10 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Cubs: Jose Quintana (13-10, 3.95 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 142 strikeouts) White Sox: Reynaldo Lopez (6-9, 4.05 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 138 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Daniel Palka has been as good as it gets for the White Sox as of late. He's batting .375 with six hits and four home runs in the past week. The White Sox are 12-18 in games started by Lopez. The White Sox's lineup has 176 home runs this season, Palka paces them with 26 homers. The Cubs come into the matchup with a two and a half-game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central. The Cubs hitters have posted a team on-base percentage of .334 this season, led by Ben Zobrist's mark of .384. Matt Davidson helped the White Sox earn a 5-3 win when these two teams last met on May 13. He went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

TOP PERFORMERS: Javier Baez has 96 runs and 107 RBIs for the Cubs this year. Kris Bryant has 10 hits and is batting .294 over his past 10 games for the Cubs. Tim Anderson has 74 runs and 62 RBIs for the White Sox this season. Avisail Garcia has three home runs and seven RBIs over his past 10 games for the White Sox.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cubs: 6-4, .196 batting average, 2.60 ERA, outscored opponents by three runs. White Sox: 4-6, .209 batting average, 3.45 ERA, outscored by seven runs.

CUBS INJURIES: The Cubs transferred RHP Brandon Morrow to the 60-day disabled list on Wednesday.

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