KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The clock has not struck midnight yet for the Kansas City Royals to defend their World Series championship, but it is getting close.The Royals were not just swept in a four-game series by the Oakland Athletics, who are in last place in the American League West, but were embarrassed. They fell 14-5 Thursday and did not score a run until the ninth inning.They were outscored 43-12, the most runs they have allowed in a four-game series in Royals history. The previous high was 41 by the New York Yankees in 1998 and Minnesota Twins in 2006.Its been tough, said Christian Colon, who hit a three-run homer with two out in the ninth for his first career home run. Were not used to this, so its hard. Its hard to really enjoy this because you play to win the game. Thats what matters the most at the end of the day.The Royals chances to get back into postseason are rapidly fading with 16 games left.The Royals, who have lost eight of their past nine Kauffman Stadium games, continue this eight-game homestand with four games against the Chicago White Sox.The White Sox are coming off a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians, who are running away with the American League Central. Jose Abreu homered for the White Sox, while Carlos Sanchez had a walk-off RBI-single.He (Abreu) started out a bit slow but when you look at the end of the year hes probably going to have numbers there as impressive as anybody in the league, White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. If he can get a few more homers and everything else, its historic stuff hes chasing (30 HR, 100 RBI).The White Sox will start All-Star left-hander Chris Sale in the series opener Friday. Sale, who leads the American League with a 3.03 ERA and five complete-games, lost 2-0 to the Royals on Sunday in Chicago.Sale is among the AL pitching leaders with 205 strikeouts, 15 victories, 201 2/3 innings, .220 opponents batting average, 2.55 road ERA and 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings.Sale usually has little difficulty with left-handed hitters, but Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer is 18-for-45, .400, off him. Hosmer is the only left-handed hitter with three home runs off Sale.Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar has a .354 average, 23-for-65, with one home run, off Sale. Royals designated hitter Kendrys Morales has only a .190 average in 21 at-bats off Sale, but two of his four hits are home runs.The Royals will start right-hander Ian Kennedy, who outdueled Sale Sunday, pitching six scoreless innings and allowing just one hit, a leadoff single to Adam Eaton, but worked around four walks, while striking out six.Kennedy is 5-0 with a 2.16 ERA, yielding 12 earned runs in 50 innings, since the beginning of August.Kennedy is 1-1 with a 4.00 ERA in three starts this season against the White Sox. He has a 2-1 record with a 3.38 ERA in his career against the White Sox.It seems unlikely Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain will appear in the series as he continues to nurse a sore left wrist. He has played in only game this month and could be out for the remainder of the season. Cheap Dolphins Jerseys China . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short. Throwbalck Dolphins Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. http://www.cheapdolphinsjerseyselite.com/ . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Authentic Dolphins Jersey . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. Cheap Kalen Ballage Jersey . Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom. When Charlotte Cooper won gold in womens tennis at the 1900 Paris Olympics, it was nothing short of remarkable.She played in an ankle-length Victorian dress and couldnt hear a sound, having?gone completely deaf years earlier. She represented Great Britain -- a country that had yet to recognize the womens right to vote like so many others at the time. Paris was the first modern Olympics that even allowed women to compete after the addition of womens tennis and golf to the Games. In winning, Cooper became the first woman ever to earn an individual Olympic gold medal.More than a century later, some 4,700 women traveled to Rio in hopes of following in her footsteps -- the highest number of women ever. As they competed on the largest world stage in sports, it became clear how far women have come from the days of Charlotte Cooper -- and how far they have yet to go.Saudi Arabia set a country record by doubling the number of women it sent to the Olympics, with four women traveling to Rio for only the second Summer Games that Saudi women were permitted to compete.Rafaela Silva won Brazils first gold medal in Rio in a triumphant comeback from her judo loss at the previous Olympics in London. Yet in an emotional interview after her championship match, she noted how little support she received from her fellow Brazilians.Everyone criticized me. They said judo wasnt for me, said Silva, who as a black woman from a poor neighborhood in Rio, has overcome many hurdles to get where she is today. They said I was an embarrassment to my family. And now Im an Olympic champion in my own home.Media coverage offered other reflections of gender bias. Of the record 170 commentators, around 20 percent were women. The skewed representation of women reporters could help explain why some commentators referred to women athletes as girls, or why some outlets seemed to give credit to athletes husbands instead of the women themselves. One study of Olympic news coverage found that media reports focused on womens age and marital status, while highlighting mens strength and speed.The U.S. media coverage seemed to be the rule, not the exception. The Associated Press published a story that led with Michael Phelps tying for second in the mens 100-meter butterfly, while Katie Ledeckys record-setting win in the womens 800-meter freestyle was an afterthought to both the headline and the lead of the story, which covered both races.Gymnast Simone Biles pushed back on some of the more subtle sexist media coverage thatt used men as proxies to explain womens accomplishments.ddddddddddddIm not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, she said after winning gold in the womens all-around final. Im the first Simone Biles.These moments transcend the world of sports to show the world of gender equality. Secretary of State John Kerry sometimes uses sports metaphors in discussions where hes advancing gender equality. After the Olympics, that seems all the more appropriate.Sports offer a lens through which we can see the status of women and girls in society. Is a country literally keeping half its population on the bench? Does society hold back women and girls from reaching their full potential by diminishing their accomplishments or lashing out at their willingness to try? The 2016 Olympic Games offer some sobering answers to these questions.But perhaps what matters most isnt the Olympics ability to illustrate the state of sexist media or opportunity for women in sports. Perhaps what matters is what happens after the Olympics when the athletes are back home.Last week, the BBC aired a fascinating story about the post-Olympic homecoming of Sakshi Malik, the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal and one of only two Indians -- both women -- to win a medal in Rio.Whats remarkable is the sheer number of women who have turned out to greet Sakshi Malik, BBC journalist Sanjoy Majumder declared in a video documenting the event. Old women, middle-aged women, little girls as well.As he spoke, the camera panned to show dozens and dozens of women and girls watching as Malik, a young woman who broke stereotypes and overcame financial barriers to make it to Rio, is celebrated in an Indian state working to overcome barriers to eliminate female feticide and educate girls.The scene represents the true potential of the Olympic Games to achieve its lofty goal of promoting peace and prosperity. As more and more women compete -- and bring their communities and countries glory and pride while doing so -- the world will see exactly what women are capable of when theyre given the opportunity.Maybe in another 100 years the world will look back on the 2016 Olympics as another remarkable turning point, when Silva, Ledecky, Biles, Malik and thousands of other women who competed, returned home and changed history.Cathy Russell is the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Womens Issues. 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