It’s been more than a year since we’ve seen live baseball on the South Side, and after a one-day Mother Nature day, there will be baseball.
Unfortunately, the baseball being played will involved the lackadaisical, 1-5 White Sox hosting the defending AL champion Blue Jays. And look no further than today’s starter for Toronto to acknowledge how a team that is trying performs vs. one that simply exists.
Indeed, ol’ versing, painting and pack-ripping Dylan Cease is back in town, facing his formative club
for the first time wearing the bird on his cap. Meanwhile, the White Sox will attack him with whatever ragtag talent they can shake out of the couch cushions:
Cease didn’t get the win in his season opener, but pitched splendidly. If he whiffed 12 Athletics in 5 ⅓ innings last Saturday, imagine how many Cease is in line for today against a -0.8 WAR White Sox offense that’s averaging 12.2 strikeouts per game so far. Just two of the nine hitters in the White Sox lineup are averaging less than a strikeout per game, and they are hitting at the very bottom of the order. Priorities!
The big surprise on the White Sox end is Grant Taylor moving from fearsome but mediocre bullpen presence to opener. The hope would be two strong frames for the fireballer, but it’s just as likely a couple of walks in the first truncates his time to the first inning only. After that, Sean Burke will come from the bullpen into bulk work, and likely a deficit.
Negative about our Chisox? Well, small sample size etc. etc. ad nauseam, but the lineup has just Tristan Peters (.333) hitting better than .263, and three players with better than an .800 OPS. Yes, that is actually an improvement over recent years, and truthfully Toronto isn’t hitting much better. But, well, how do you think this one is going to turn out?
Ballgame begins at 1:10 p.m. CT, with CHSN and WMVP-1000 providing the broadcast coverage. I’ll have your postgame recap, and we’ll be recording a postgame podcast, win or lose, available in The Feed about an hour or two after final out.
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