There’s something going on with the White Sox, especially for a certain pitcher who was used to getting nothing.

For the previous four seasons, Jose Quintana was widely considered to be the unluckiest player in Major League Baseball for his notorious lack of run support and overwhelming amount of late-game misfortune.

But not anymore.

Quintana has won four straight starts for the first time in his career. He hasn’t had a no-decision since his first start of the season.

You can point to the White Sox improved offense and defense. Or believe what Quintana and his teammate Chris Sale have been doing before every Quintana start since 2013:

Pointing to the sky for help.

“We did it to get some runs for him,” Sale said about their pregame dugout ritual. “We do the two claps, we hug it out.”

Then they look to the heavens.

What do they say?

"I pray to God,” Quintana explained. “Saying 'please, please.’”

Yes, it came to this.

Entering this season, in Quintana’s 119 career starts, the White Sox had scored zero runs for him 18 times, one run 26 times, two runs 28 times and three runs 15 times. Put another way, the White Sox had scored three runs or less in 73 percent of Quintana’s starts. 

It’s tough to win a ballgame when your offense gets home less than a traveling salesman.

As a result, Quintana, one of the best pitchers in baseball, has been saddled with 53 no-decisions since 2012, seven more than anybody else in baseball during that time. In 2013, he established an American League record with 17 no-decisions. That same year he set a White Sox record with seven consecutive no-decisions. If that’s not enough, Quintana’s seven career starts of seven scoreless innings without earning a win are the most in franchise history.

He and Sale were praying, but for three seasons, their prayers were left unanswered.

“Clearly,” Sale said laughing. “It wasn’t working too hot.”

So others started getting involved.

“One day I'm like, ‘You want some runs?’ Let's get some runs today,’” said first base coach Daryl Boston.

This would be a challenge for both men considering Boston is a former White Sox outfielder who hasn’t played in the major leagues since 1994 and Quintana has no hits and 13 strikeouts in 22 career at-bats.

How would they score runs for the White Sox?

“We have our own secret handshake,” said Boston, who is 53 years-old, but can publically admit to having a secret handshake because this is baseball, and that’s what happens when grown men play and coach a child’s game for a living.

After completing his warm-up throws in the bullpen, Quintana arrives in the White Sox dugout, where Boston is always the first one to greet him.

“He’s getting ready for the game. That gets him going,” Boston said about the Quintana handshake. “That’s the first thing we do.”

Then it’s onto a quick cheer to chase the run drought demons away.

They both face each other and shout, “Pagame all day long!” which in Spanglish means, “Pay me all day long.”

Quintana, who has a contract that’s one of the biggest bargains in baseball, doesn’t want to get paid in cash. He wants something else in return.

“Give me some runs!” Quintana and Boston shout at each other. They often use another word in between “some” and “runs.” You can use your imagination.

But despite Sale and Boston’s pleas to the baseball Gods, Quintana’s run of bad luck merely continued and continued. That was until this season, when more of his teammates started getting involved with their own Jose handshakes, hoping to end his wretched run of unfair defeats.

And it’s become a sight to behold.

Now when he arrives in the dugout moments before each start, you have what has become Quintana Conga Line of body motions, hand gestures and physical theater. It’s become a cross between a broadway show and a Latin night club — all in an effort to bring some energy to the team, change Quintana's fortunes and produce more victories for the White Sox.

Carlos Rodon, a normally reserved starting pitcher, has come out of his shell with Quintana like we've never seen before. The two of them fist-pump, wipe imaginary dust off their shoulders, do half a pitching wind-up, embrace with a bear hug and then jump around in a circle.

Before John Danks was designated for assignment, he and Quintana would pretend to play a video game, do a quick salsa move and then take an imaginary selfie.

“It’s a fun thing to watch,” Sale said. “I was talking to (Tyler) Saladino the other day. I told him to pay attention to everything. You can almost watch the energy being created through the handshakes, the momentum, the chirping, the noise. It’s fun.”

So what did Saladino do? He hopped on board.

"Him and I do a pat, pat (with our hands) and make the sound of a cat. That's ours," Saladino said.

The cat comes from an App the two found when they were in the minor leagues together in 2012.

"There was this little cat App, and you could say something into it in English and it would say it out to you in Spanish. And it was in this weird little high pitched voice. The cat's name was Gatito."

So Quintana and Saladino look at each other, put their thumbs on their cheeks, spread their fingers out wide like a cat with whiskers, and make a screeching cat sound.

Seriously.

Who came up with this?

"I think ours was a little more him," Saladino said.

Quintana disagrees.

“His idea," Quintana said. Then he laughed.

With every winning start, more and more of Quintana’s teammates have joined the party.

“He might have a handshake with everybody on the team in the dugout,” Sale said.

How Quintana remembers all of them — and at a rapid fire pace — is anybody’s guess, but you can’t argue with the results — especially when you consider that his four-game winning streak started on April 22nd against Texas.

Remember what happened in that game?

Facing one of the best offenses in baseball, Quintana loaded the bases in the seventh inning. Mitch Moreland drilled a line drive to right field which looked like extra bases and at least two runs.

But it wasn’t.

Adam Eaton raced over and caught the ball. One out. He threw it to first base where Jose Abreu tagged out a dancing Ian Desmond as he tried to get back to the bag. Two outs. Abreu threw home to catcher Dioner Navarro who saw Adrian Beltre caught between second and third. He threw the ball to shortstop Saladino. Prince Fielder broke for home. Saladino tossed the ball to Todd Frazier who placed the tag on Fielder. Three outs. Triple play!

But not just any triple play. It was scored 9-3-2-6-2-5, the first of its kind in the history of major league baseball.

Quintana and the White Sox won the game 5-0.

“If anybody on the field deserves to have that happen for him, it’s Q,” said manager Robin Ventura about Quintana after the victory. “I think it’s a good sign. It’s something he’s earned with what he’s been through.”

And now with an offense, a defense and these berserk antics backing him up for every one of his starts, Quintana is winning — and the curse seems to be lifted.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Sale said. “He deserves it. He works as hard as anybody in there. He’s never had a sour moment, never pointed a finger. I don’t know if anybody has ever come across him that couldn’t like him. If they don’t, then I don’t like them.”

As for Quintana himself, he likes where this is going and believes his prayers are finally being answered.

“Yeah I think so. I hope so yes,” Quintana said. “It's a good thing for us. It's working.”

Even better — Quintana is winning. Finally.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They may be reeling from two awful losses, but Alex Avila expects he won’t see any let up from his White Sox teammates.

He’d better not.

Whereas they should be in position to close out a sweep of the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, the White Sox are trying to avoid one after consecutive stunning losses, including allowing seven runs in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday in an 8-7 loss.

Asked how they have to respond, the veteran catcher said his White Sox teammates have little choice — play hard or don’t bother showing up.

“The way you stop it is you come back tomorrow and make something happen,” Avila said. “They’re not going to feel bad for us. So you can’t feel sorry for yourself. It’s an extremely tough loss for sure. That’s a game we should have won. There’s been a few games we should have won. The way we’ve been playing have given a lot of people doubt.

“But guys in here, if they have any shred of doubt in their mind of what they can do, even though we’re struggling, don’t even come. No one’s going to feel sorry for you in this game. Even if you’re struggling, battle your ass off. There’s no room for feeling sorry for yourself and doubting your ability and your team’s ability. We’re going through a tough two-week stretch. The good thing is it’s right now at the end of May here. Try to finish these last few games in May strong and take it into June and see if we can make a better month out of it.”

The White Sox appeared to respond well to Friday’s game, one in which they blew a four-run lead, until the bullpen melted down for a second straight day. Even though none of their big run producers came through, the White Sox pulled ahead 7-1 on the strength of home runs by Tyler Saladino and Avisail Garcia.

But then the impossible happened and the Royals rallied to win a game in which their win probability was 0.1 percent after David Robertson struck out Paulo Orlando to start the ninth inning. Robertson only recorded one more out as he allowed six runs and Tommy Kahnle allowed another in an 8-7 loss.

“I’m not surprised or satisfied the way our team has responded to tough losses,” Avila said. “I expect it. No matter what the situation was the game before, I expect each guy in here to be prepared the very next day. If they’re not, then there’s an issue. Guys have been coming to play every single day and doing their homework and getting prepared for each game. If they weren’t, it’d be an issue. But guys have been doing that and we’re kind of going through one of those spells where instead of finding ways to win, we’re finding ways to lose games. Most teams will go through it or have gone through it. I know the first month we were playing great and the Royals weren’t playing well, the Tigers weren’t playing well and Cleveland wasn’t playing well. It was like, ‘Well, we’re going to run away with it,’ and flipped the script. Things can change pretty quickly over the course of a week or two weeks, even a month. That’s my point on why you have to come and make sure you’re prepared — that doubt in your mind about the day before is gone and you have to be ready no matter what because nobody is going to feel sorry for you.”

The White Sox take on the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, and you can catch all the action on Comcast SportsNet. Coverage begins with White Sox Pregame Live at 12:30 p.m. Be sure to stick around after the final out to get analysis and player reaction on White Sox Postgame Live.

Sunday’s starting pitching matchup: Chris Sale vs. Edison Volquez

Click here for a game preview to make sure you’re ready for the action.  

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- What an implosion.

A day after they inexplicably gave away one contest, the White Sox outdid themselves on Saturday afternoon.

Instead of evening the series with a decisive victory, David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle allowed the Kansas City Royals to rally for seven ninth-inning runs to send the White Sox to a stunning 8-7 loss in front of 31,598 at Kauffman Stadium. Brett Eibner’s bases-loaded RBI single off Kahnle capped an improbable comeback and delivered another crushing blow to the White Sox, who have lost five straight and 13 of their last 17 contests.

“This is a tough one, no matter how you look at it,” third baseman Todd Frazier said. “You saw what happened. You can go back and think about it, game we should have won and didn’t win.”

“We’re all professionals and we’ve seen crazy things in baseball. This is one of them.”

Saturday’s loss ranks as one of the craziest in club history. The White Sox went from a state of joy, cruising toward a pivotal victory, to disarray in a span of 51 pitches.

Leading 7-1, Robertson took over and struck out Paulo Orlando.

Cheslor Cuthbert then singled and Eibner doubled to deep right when Adam Eaton lost the ball in the sun. Robertson walked Omar Infante and Alcides Escobar consecutively to force in a run, which prompted a visit from White Sox manager Robin Ventura.

Whit Merrifield’s grounder then deflected off the glove of Robertson and a potential double play turned into a two-run single and made it a 7-4 contest.

“The worst part about it was looking back and seeing Brett (Lawrie) was right there,” Robertson said. “If I had let it go, I would have got us out of the inning. It’s frustrating when you make a mistake like that.”

Lorenzo Cain’s hustle kept the inning alive as he narrowly beat out a game-ending double play to drive in another run. Eric Hosmer followed with an RBI double to right-center field to make it a 7-6 game and end Robertson’s day.

“It’s a terrible performance on my part,” Robertson said. “Can’t say much else about it.

“It doesn’t matter what the score is, I still have to get three outs. I let the whole team down.”

Drew Butera lifted his team’s spirits. The backup catcher entered in the ninth inning after an apparent knee injury knocked Salvador Perez out of the game. Already on tilt, the Kauffman crowd erupted when Butera ripped a 99-mph fastball from Kahnle for a game-tying double.

The White Sox opted to intentionally walk Orlando. But it didn’t prevent Kahnle from allowing Butera to advance to third as he uncorked a wild pitch. Kahnle also intentionally walked Jarrod Dyson to load the bases for Eibner, who ended a 10-pitch at-bat with the game-winning single under the glove of Sox first baseman Jose Abreu.

“The way games have been going, you go to the guy to close it out, because we haven’t been able to get to him,” Ventura said. “There’s no shot clock. There’s no time clock. If you can’t close it out, that’s what happens. And today we couldn’t close it out.”

The White Sox entered the ninth inning without a care in the world. They had bounced back definitively from Friday’s stunner, when the bullpen surrendered a four-run lead over the final three innings.

An opposite-field approach against Kansas City starter Yordano Ventura took hold with two outs in the fourth inning. Brett Lawrie, Alex Avila and Avisail Garcia all had opposite-field singles, Garcia’s providing the White Sox a 1-0 lead. Tyler Saladino then crushed a hanging 0-2 slider from Ventura for a three-run homer to left field and a four-run lead.

The White Sox offense continued to add on against Ventura. Avila doubled with one out in the fourth inning and Garcia hammered a 2-1 changeup for a two-run shot. Garcia’s homer, his fifth, traveled 428 feet at an exit velocity of 113 mph and gave the White Sox a 6-1 advantage.

They added another run in the fifth as Austin Jackson singled, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error by Omar Infante.

And then the Royals happened again.

“They have mojo over there right now,” Avila said. “They just keep coming at you and taking advantage of the fact that we’re scuffling a little bit right now.”

The devastating loss was the third in 18 days in which the White Sox bullpen surrendered a significant lead. The unit, which has a 4.73 ERA this month, also blew a five-run lead in a 13-11 loss at the Texas Rangers on May 10. Along with a blown four-run lead on Friday, the White Sox nearly surrendered a four-run advantage in the opening game of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians on Monday.

“It might have a lasting effect,” Frazier said. “There are going to be some guys who are in here who tonight aren’t going to be real happy. Once you get in here and know we start over again, I’ve learned from the best that you start all over like nothing happened and go about your business.”