Gamethread: White Sox at Orioles

After easily their most lopsided victory of the season, the Chicago White Sox (9-12) look to keep it going in the second game against the Orioles (8-16). In the series opener, the White Sox put up three four-run innings en route to a 12-2 win.

Today, Chicago turns to Iván Nova, who has had two quality starts and two clunkers so far this season. He enters with a 6.23 ERA over 21 ²⁄₃ innings. In his last start, he made it through 6 ¹⁄₃ innings but allowed six runs (all earned) on 11 hits against the Tigers.

Nova faces righthander Andrew Cashner, who has a 4.97 ERA in 25 ¹⁄₃ innings this year. Cashner is a 10-year veteran with decent numbers (4.04 ERA and 9.4 fWAR in his career) but is coming off a rough season (5.29 ERA, 5.32 FIP, 5.19 xFIP in 2018).

The starting lineups are as follows:

(No wonder that bird is ticked off; he had to watch Baltimore’s relief pitchers last night.)

José Abreu, today’s No. 3 hitter, reached another milestone in yesterday’s game, hitting career home run No. 150. He also reached 500 career RBIs in the past week. He has been heating up lately after a slow start. In the past three games, he is 6-for-15 with two doubles in addition to that home run.

Overall, I like today’s lineup. We do not say this often, but Renteria did well with the batting order. Chicago’s two hottest hitters are batting first and second, with the second of them being the best overall hitter. Let’s keep it this way.

The game, which starts at 6:05 p.m. CST, will be televised on NBC Sports Chicago+. It will also be available on radio at WGN 720.