CHICAGO -- The Kansas City Royals will try to preserve their slim hopes for the postseason when they open a three-game series against the host Chicago White Sox on Friday night.The defending World Series champion Royals (72-67) have lost five of their past eight contests and trail the Baltimore Orioles by four games for the American Leagues second wild-card spot. Three other contenders -- the Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros and New York Yankees -- are ahead of the Royals in the wild-card pursuit.A matchup against the underwhelming White Sox (67-72) could help Kansas City gain ground in the standings. The Royals are 9-3 against Chicago this season after winning 12 of 19 games against the South Siders in 2015.Right-hander Yordano Ventura (10-9, 4.22 ERA) will start the series opener for the Royals. The hard-throwing, hot-tempered 25-year-old started the season poorly but has proved to be much better in recent weeks. In his previous six starts, he is 4-0 with a 2.23 ERA.Ventura ignited a bench-clearing incident with the White Sox last season after he exchanged words with outfielder Adam Eaton. However, he showed no signs of losing his composure in his most recent meeting against Chicago on June 12 as he struck out a season-high 10 batters in seven innings to earn the victory. He is 3-3 with a 4.33 ERA in nine career starts against the White Sox.Opposing Ventura will be White Sox left-hander Carlos Rodon (6-8, 3.90 ERA), who also has been on a hot streak. The 23-year-old is 4-0 with a 1.91 ERA in his past six outings. He has walked eight and struck out 31 in that span.Rodon has fared well against Kansas City during his brief career. In three starts, he is 1-1 with a 2.55 ERA.Kansas City hopes to have one of its best players back in the lineup to face the White Sox. Catcher Salvador Perez could return after missing a game because of a bruised right wrist. Perez was hit by a fastball Tuesday and sat out Wednesdays series finale against the Minnesota Twins.The four-time All-Star is hitting .254 with 20 home runs and 59 RBI in 122 games this season.Im hoping that hes ready to play, Royals manager Ned Yost told the Kansas City Star before the team traveled to Chicago. Most of the time, you get hit by a pitch and it hurts. But if you get that ball-on-bone sound -- that crunching sound -- its not a good sound.For the White Sox, first baseman Jose Abreu will look to continue his torrid hitting. The Cuban slugger is hitting .447 (17-for-38) with five home runs and 15 RBI during his past eight games. He has boosted his season totals to a .298 average with 23 home runs and 88 RBI in 136 games.Ive been having some ups and downs during this season, Abreu said. I think everybody knows that. But I think fighting through all those stretches (has helped). ... 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Somewhere around bored oclock during the third Test between New Zealand and South Africa in Wellington in March 2012, after Kane Williamson had been struck on the shoulder, the arm and the box, but before he raised his bat to a match-saving century, one member of the media pack, who had spent lunchtime imbibing in a sponsors box, spoke the most memorable sentence of the tour.That guy, our colleague with a voice that scratched like sandpaper said. Hes gonna be a great player.The rest of us shot each other sideways glances of bemusement. The local journalists had seen Williamson score a century on debut, and not much after then. The foreign ones, myself included, were impressed by his stoicism against a fiery South African attack, but we didnt think he was that good. If anyone knew that Williamson had 40 hundreds to his name by the time he left school, they didnt say so. Instead, some of us rolled our eyes, others giggled under their breath, and even when Williamson saw out the draw, we were far from convinced.Williamsons century was not enough to earn him the Man-of-the-Match award - that went to Morne Morkel - so our only interaction with him was the next day, at the airport. Some of us from the press corps had a brief chat with him and he wished us well on our travels. We concluded that he was a nice kid, soft-spoken and thoughtful, but we still didnt see any signs of greatness.When the South Africans next encountered Williamson - in a Test series in early 2013 - nothing about New Zealand seemed great. They lost both matches by margins of more than an innings and appeared completely out of their depth.Things started to change towards the end of the trip, when they redeemed themselves, and Williamson was responsible for it. He struck an unbeaten 145 in the second ODI, in Kimberley, to give New Zealand a first series win in any format in South Africa. Williamsons innings was an aggressive but polished display that combined his ability to punish anything overpitched and to play spin. Suddenly the phrase great player did not seem too much of a leap.At the time, Brendon McCullum called Williamsons and the teams achievement phenomenal, and said Williamsons innings was as good as weve seen from a New Zealander. No one knew it then but that tour would also be the catalyst for a complete change in New Zealand cricket.In the two years that followed, they went from being a fractured group that was unable to settle on a captain after Ross Taylor was sacked, or command respect for the coach (one of the few on the circuit who had not played professional cricket at any level), to a united outfit. They stole hearts and put smiles on faces during their magical run to the final of the 2015 World Cup, in a campaign defined by the power of dreaming big and having fun.Central to all that was Williamson. Although he operated mostly in McCullums shadow, he racked up runs in series wins over India and West Indies, and in a closely contested drawn outing against Pakistan in the UAE. He scored carefully in Tests and quickly in shorter formats, and quietly climbed the batting rankings.These days he sits second on the Test rankings, fourth on the ODI charts and sixth in T20s. It is believed that he will finish as New Zealands best batsman ever.If he can translate that potential into his other job - leadership - he may be their most successful cricketer. Thats a lot of expectation for a 25-year-old to carry, especially as he only sits on the eve of his captaincy debut, but those who know Williamson dont think its too much for him to handle.He is very mature and does not let much faze him, Jason Gillespie, Williamsons coach at Yorkshire, told ESPNcricinfo. He has the right personality and temperament to lead New Zealand in all formats. It is the right time for Kane to make the step, and I have no doubt he will be a very good captain.Although Williamson did not captain at the county, Gillespie has seen in him all the qualities to do the job. The one that sstands out is a willingness to learn.dddddddddddd He has his own thoughts on the game, yet will be a very inclusive captain and be open to suggestions and feedback. He will find that right balance between being one of the lads and the leader, Gillespie said. What he will do well is take on board advice, suggestions and feedback, but no one will be left in any doubt who is in charge. He communicates very well, from what I have seen at Yorkshire in his time with us.Williamson has the advantage of having inherited from McCullum a team on the up, with an ingrained culture that does not need much tweaking. Brendon is someone Kane has and will continue to look up to and seek advice from, Gillespie said. They are really good mates and I see Kane simply looking to build on to the culture that New Zealand cricket already have.Already Williamson has spoken about how McCullums ideology of smart cricket will serve him on his first assignment, which will be tricky if only because it presents so much of the unexpected. New Zealand have not toured Zimbabwe for a Test series in five years, and even then it was only for a one-off Test. Bulawayo has not hosted any Test cricket since then, so no one really knows what to expect from the conditions except that they are likely to be slow and low and favour a more old-fashioned style of play than what we have become used to in recent years.The strength of the opposition aside, New Zealand will want to get the better of the conditions. We are looking to play smart all the time, as the team did under Brendon, who was obviously fantastic and weve all learnt so much playing under him, Williamson said. We are looking to be aggressive but at the same time skinning it. In certain countries you do it differently. Then they move on to South Africa, the scene of that embarrassing display early in 2013. This time, though, New Zealand could even consider themselves favourites. They are ranked fifth, a place above South Africa in Tests, and will have game time under their belts, unlike the hosts, who have not played a Test since January. The Zimbabwe experience will also ensure New Zealand are better equipped for early-season conditions in South Africa. All things considered, Williamson could eye this as a chance to claim a massive scalp early in his tenure and he knows it.Theres so many opportunities that lie ahead. For us as a team, its very much about the next game and the next series and we are looking to continually improve as a team. We know if we are doing that, we will be playing better cricket, he said.But with everything Williamson has to look forward to, he will undoubtedly also meet some obstacles along the way, chiefly around the structuring of his own schedule. Kanes biggest challenge is to find that cricket-life balance, Gillespie said. He is captain in all three formats of the game, and of a country that travels more than any other, in part due to their geographical location. New Zealand have a heavy itinerary over the next period.The life of a modern cricketer is fantastic - lots of options and opportunity. However, we have to remember that first and foremost they are people, and while it can be a glamorous lifestyle with lots of perks, at the end of the day everyone needs a recharge every now and again.Williamson seems to understand how to separate work from his personal life. He does not have a Twitter or Instagram account, which allows him a degree of privacy. He has also showed an awareness of the importance of time out. He asked to sit out a first-class match for Yorkshire, citing mental fatigue, which could also have been related to his form. Williamson scored just 42 runs from four first-class innings before taking a break. He has since declared himself ready for the African adventure and the chance to become the great player someone once predicted he would be. 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