After splitting a four-game series in Cleveland, the White Sox return to Chicago to wrap up the first half while hopefully maintaining sole possession of first place in the AL Central. Boston comes to town with a three-game win streak after sweeping the Los Angeles Angels, and is playing much better as a whole as of late. The Red Sox are 8-2 over their last 10, which included a four-game sweep against the Yankees, and are now just four games back in the wild-card race; an interesting development
as we get closer to the MLB trade deadline.
The Good Guys suffered two brutal walk-off losses to begin the series last week against the Guardians, but won the final two contests and are 6-4 in their last 10 games. Lefthander Noah Schultz is making his 10th start of his major league career and his second since returning from the IL last week. The 22-year-old holds a 5.86 ERA and 1.349 WHIP on the season, but his 4.86 FIP tells us he’s gotten a bit unlucky or perhaps suffered some blunders on the field during his outings.
Noah’s fastball has been one of his best pitches this season, averaging a bit over 95 mph with the lowest opponent batting average of all his pitches (.156). Though the lefty has struggled with walks to begin his career at a 14% walk rate, he’s still striking out opposing hitters 21.5% of the time and has been able to work through some tough jams throughout his starts. And let’s not forget he is still quite young.
As expected, Boston is leveraging a righty-heavy lineup against Schultz, mixing in a few power hitters that could be trouble if he isn’t on his game tonight. Both Ceddanne Rafaela (13) and Willson Contreras (10) rank in the top 15 in AL batting average, with Willson ranking ninth in all of baseball with a .920 OPS (fifth in the AL). We’ll also get to see our old pal Romy Gonzalez, who recently returned from the IL after getting shoulder surgery in the early spring.
Boston Red Sox Lineup
On the other side, the White Sox will go up against southpaw Payton Tolle, who is making his 14th start of the season for the Red Sox. In 74 1/3 frames, Tolle holds a solid 3.39 ERA and 1.117 WHIP with 74 Ks, and walks batters at a much lower rate than Schultz (7.5% BB%). Against lefties, the South Siders are tied for eighth in MLB with the A’s with a .748 team OPS against them, but have also hit 39 home runs against left-handed pitchers, tied for third in MLB.
With that, the Good Guys will also be opting for a few more righties in the batting order tonight, except Sam Antonacci will remain in the lineup, just shifting down to batting fifth. After all, can we really sit the Italian on Italian Heritage Night?
All-Star Miguel Vargas will take over in the leadoff spot, with Randal Grichuk batting second and slotting in as the DH instead of Andrew Benintendi. In an interesting move, Will Venable has shifted Chase Meidroth into the cleanup position, moving Colson Montgomery up to third, though with Junior Perez, Kyle Teel, and Luisangel Acuña in the bottom of the lineup, they are likely just trying to give their best hitters the most at-bats, with Tristan Peters acting as the “second-leadoff” in the nine-hole.
Chicago White Sox Lineup
Schultz will toss the first pitch tonight on the South Side at 6:40 p.m. CT. As usual, head to CHSN for the TV broadcast or tune into the radio at ESPN Chicago AM 1000. With the temperature hanging around 80º at game time, it looks like it will be a beautiful night for a ball game, and hopefully a White Sox win.
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