White Sox Preview

The Red Sox welcome the White Sox to town for the final series these teams will play this season. Boston took two of three in Chicago in May, and the White Sox have been in a tailspin ever since. Lets get to it.


Venue: Fenway Park

Opponent: Chicago White Sox

Record: 33-36, 4th place and 5.5 games behind the Indians in the AL Central

Recent Results: 3-9; Swept by Indians, lost two of three to Tigers, two of three to Royals, two of three to Nationals

Run Differential: -16, 10th in AL

Team ERA: 4.02, 7th in AL 

Runs Scored: 279, 12th in AL

Players to Watch:

A) 1B Jose Abreu burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2014, winning the Rookie of the Year Award after smashing 36 homers. He got off to a horrible start to this season, but has rebounded nicely over the last month, hitting .301 with 4 home runs. He now has 10 on the season, and is the White Sox best all-around hitter. 

B) CF Adam Eaton is a tremendous all around player. He is one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball; his speed and athleticism enable him to cover a ton of ground and make spectacular catches, and he has an absolute cannon attached to his left shoulder. He is no slouch at the plate either, batting .283 at the top of the White Sox lineup. Given how badly the team has been struggling to score recently, Chicago will need him to be creating scoring chances in this series. 

 C) 3B Todd Frazier joined the White Sox in the offseason, coming off of back to back appearances on the National League All-Star team. He has blasted 19 home runs this season, which is tied for 2nd most in the American League (1 behind leader Mark Trumbo of the Orioles). However, Frazier has been a boom or bust hitter this season, as his batting average is a miserable .197. He has been mired in a horrible slump, batting just .108 over his last 20 games. If the White Sox are going to turn things around, they will need Frazier to produce more consistently. 

Pitching Matchups

Game 1 (Monday, 7:10 EST): Steven Wright vs. Miguel Gonzalez 

     Steven Wright has wildly outperformed all expectations and projections this season, exploding into a top of the line starter out of absolutely nowhere. He has mastered the art of the knuckleball, and is doing a really nice job of changing speeds with the pitch; he can throw it anywhere from 64-78 MPH, which is basically unfair. Willie Stargell once described hitting a knuckler as "like trying to drink coffee with a fork", and it's even harder when you have to worry about timing it as well as tracking its movement. Wright is currently leading all American League pitchers with a 2.22 ERA, and has thrown at least 7 innings in 5 of his last 6 starts. 

     Gonzalez has made just 8 starts on the season after missing the month of April with an injury. He has compiled a 4.74 ERA with 37 strikeouts in 44 innings, making him an average to below average fifth starter. At 32 years old, he is probably not going to develop any further, and is more or less a replacement level starter. His fastball averages right around 92 MPH according to Fangraphs Pitch FX tool, and he can throw both four and two seam fastballs. He also features a changeup, slider and curveball, although opponents have been feasting off of his breaking pitches. Opponents are batting .308 against his slider, and a gruesome .455 off his curveball. He has been able to limit opponents to a .209 average with his changeup, which he likes to throw down and in to right handed batters to induce groundouts. If he doesn't bring his A game, I expect the Sox offense to knock him around, leading to a Red Sox victory. 

Game 2 (Tuesday, 7:10 EST): Clay Buccholz vs. Chris Sale

     The Red Sox tried to get Clay Suckholz out of their rotation, demoting him to the bullpen on May 26th. Unfortunately, all of the guys they have handed starts to in his place (Joe Kelly, Roenis Elias, Henry Owens) have been dreadful, so here we are again. While I am obviously not excited about seeing back in the rotation, there are some reasons to be hopeful about this start. Buccholz has been decent out of the bullpen, keeping the opponent off the scoreboard in 4 of his 5 appearances. Furthermore, the White Sox offense is very bad, and Clay had maybe his best start of the season when he faced them back on May 4th, allowing just 2 runs in 7 innings of work. In order to repeat that success, I think having his changeup working early will be the key. If he can throw that pitch for strikes and keep it down in the zone, he might be able to avoid the One Big Inning that has plagued him for years. 

     Sadly for Buccholz, even if he pitches well it might not be enough, because he is going against Chris Sale, the White Sox ace and one of the best left-handed starters in all of baseball. Sale is 11-2 with a 2.94 ERA this season, and has struck out 93 batters in 98 innings, 6th most in the American League. Sale uses a deceptive delivery, slinging the ball from a three-quarters arm slot that is especially tough for left-handed batters to pick up on. Sale is a three pitch pitcher, but all three are deadly. His fastball averages 93 MPH with movement, and he can reach back to hit 98 when he needs to. He has such good velocity that his change-up goes 88-90 MPH and still fools hitters. However, his best pitch is easily his slider, which has late, sharp break that is just filthy nasty. He frequently embarrasses hitters with it, like in this video clip where we can see Mark Trumbo strike out on a pitch that hits him in the knee.  Given the pitchers in this game, I'd be surprised if it doesn't end in a White Sox win.

Game 3 (Wednesday, 7:10 EST): Eduardo Rodriguez vs. jose Quintana

     I was very excited for Rodriguez to rejoin the rotation after missing the first couple months with an injury, but he has not been good at all. In 4 starts, he has a dreadful ERA of 6.97, and hasn't made it out of the fifth inning in either of his last two. He has really struggled with controlling his changeup and slider, and as a result has been pitching from behind in the count and relying on his fastball almost exclusively. He has also been struggling with tipping his pitches, the same problem that was supposed to have been fixed in the offseason; his motion looks completely different when he throws a fastball vs when throws any other pitch. Its tough to get hitters out when they know exactly what's coming, but pitching coach Carl Willis says that Rodriguez is going to be "a completely different pitcher next time out", so we'll see what they've been worked on.

     Quintana is another dominant lefty at the top of the White Sox rotation, and he showed why when he faced Boston back in May, giving up just a single run on four hits over 8 inning. Like Sale, Quintana has mid-90s velocity on his fastball, and can throw it straight or with a bit of movement in towards righties. He also uses a nasty curveball to pick up strikeouts, which has both vertical and horizontal movement. At just 77 MPH, it also keeps hitters off balance with dramatic velocity difference compared to his fastball. Given that the Red Sox lineup is worse against lefties, this is another tough matchup for Boston. Unless Rodriguez can get it together, the White Sox will probably win. 

Game 4 (Thursday, 1:35 EST): Rick Porcello vs James Shields

     Rick Porcello has been a solid, if unspectacular, innings eating pitcher for most of this season. He has been pitching very well in his last three starts, going at least six innings while allowing 3 earned runs or less each time out. In his last start, he shut down the potent Mariners lineup, giving up 2 runs while striking out 6 in 6 innings. I think he will have no problem keeping this White Sox group in check.

     Opposing Porcello will be James Shields, who was acquired by the White Sox from the San Diego Padres at the beginning of June. Shields gained notoriety as a borderline ace for the Rays and Royals at the beginning of this decade. However, this season he has been downright awful, posting a 6.28 ERA in 14 starts. Things have gotten even worse since he changed leagues, as he has failed to make it out of the third inning in three of his past four starts, while giving up at least 6 runs in all four. I will be downright shocked if the Sox don't knock this bum around, leading to a comfortable win for the home team.