Having played their final home games of 2025 this past weekend, the South Siders will finish the year on the road as they set off to The Big Apple to take on the New York Yankees in their penultimate series
of the season. It has been quite the journey since late March, and though the White Sox have been a fun second-half team, they’ve started to cool off over the last two weeks, owning the second-worst OPS in MLB (.555) — only better than the San Francisco Giants (.544), of all teams.
Prior to kicking off the series, the White Sox announced that Andrew Benintendi will be headed to the IL (retroactive to Sunday), and Corey Julks will be joining the Good Guys from the Triple-A Knights to help support in the outfield. Julks was one of the best hitters for the Knights all season, and slashed .300/.374/.446 with an .803 OPS across 436 at-bats and 116 games. He’s joined the big league club for a few games this season and posted solid numbers (.375 batting average, .851 OPS), although it was a small sample size with just eight at-bats.
For the South Siders, righthander Shane Smith is making his 28th start of the season and has essentially been the centerpiece of the White Sox starting rotation this season. Smith has posted a 4.06 season ERA after a slight rough patch in June/July; he had begun to bounce back in August — posting a 2.67 ERA across six starts — but he’s coming off of a shaky start against the Baltimore Orioles last week in which he allowed six runs.
Shane is still the guy you want on the mound to begin a tough series against New York. He’ll have some challenges with the Yankees lineup for sure, especially when you factor in the reigning MVP, Aaron Judge, who is leading all of baseball in OPS and batting average. Cody Bellinger is also a player who can wreak havoc at any point with his power, and he and Judge pack a brutal one-two punch in the lineup in the second and third spots.
Here’s the full lineup for the Yankees:
After being injured most of the season, Luis Gil has been up in the big leagues with New York since August, and is 4-1 with a 3.33 ERA in nine starts this season. Gil does walk a lot of guys, with a 14.4% walk rate on the season, which could be a benefit to a White Sox team that walked nine times on Sunday and scored both runs on walks.
Chase Meidroth has been back in the leadoff spot, and he’s been the hottest hitter for the South Siders over the last two weeks (42 at-bats) with a .262 batting average, which isn’t saying much since they have been struggling to score runs lately. Kyle Teel has been excellent at the top of the order, and he has the highest OPS (.717) these last two weeks in 35 at-bats. Edgar Quero will take the DH spot tonight, leaving Teel to handle business behind the plate this evening.
Here’s how the White Sox are lining ‘em up, though I personally would have let Julks take Robertson’s spot to get his feet wet in MLB again.
Since the Good Guys are out on the East Coast to wrap up the season, first pitch for tonight’s game will take place at 6:05 p.m. CT. Catch the action on CHSN or tune into the radio broadcast at ESPN Chicago AM 1000. I would very much enjoy a win against the Yankees on this rainy evening in Chicago, so hopefully the South Siders don’t let us down!
