It’s a morning game today — well, morning in Arizona — as the White Sox who end up making the team get packed up to fly to Chicago (where the wind chill will be 26° at game time, compared to about 70 degrees warmer in Phoenix).
It’s down to the wire to see if the Sox have a winning Cactus League record! Did you catch the excitement?
To try for that magic 16-15-1, White Sox are sending out a starting lineup that is mostly like what they’ll put on the field Thursday for Opening Day in Milwaukee — but
with lefty Anthony Kay on the mound. Kay has had the best spring of any Sox starting pitcher, with a 2.20 ERA that shows (we hope) that the resurrection of his career in Japan last year wasn’t a fluke.
The A’s counter with righty Luis Morales, who had a fine rookie season in 2025 — 1.2b WAR on a 3.14 ERA — but is having a miserable spring, giving up 13 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings, much of the problem being 10 walks.
There is enough in the way of trips to the plate now for the extremely high or low batting averages of early spring to return toward normal, with the only one better than .300 being Luisangel Acuña’s hefty .405, and the only one short of .200 being Colson Montgomery’s .170.
The A’s also have most of their regulars in the game, led by Brent Rooker, who has a .348 average this spring, along with five homers.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. Central, with the early start in Arizona giving everybody heading north plenty of time to pack. This is a game where you’d normally see the starters leave after a few innings and start to haul their gear homeward. It also avoids the worst of the heat, though it’s not supposed to get hotter than the mid-90s in the Phoenix area, not the 100+ of recent days.
Or, you could see them hauling gear if the game was on TV, which it isn’t. Not on radio, either. So you’ll have to catch Gameday on occasion and use your imagination.
