After gutting out yesterday’s win in the series opener, the Chicago White Sox have crept within 13 games of the first-place Minnesota Twins (12 in the loss column). Sky’s the limit!
It’s Iván Nova on the bump for the White Sox in today’s “area code” game pitting the Chicago 312s against the Minnesota 612s. “This year’s Shields” has been knocked around a bit, particularly at home, where he is 0-3 with an 8.79 ERA.
While on the face of it, it’s hilarious that Jon Jay is hitting fifth, ahead of Eloy Jiménez, well, Jay is rocking a .928 OPS since his arrival, so let’s let Ricky play this one out, eh? Presumably against a righthander it would make more sense to slot Daniel Palka in right and move Jay to center, but what do I know, I’m just a gal with a laptop.
Today's #WhiteSox starters! pic.twitter.com/GqxTTLjyHP
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 29, 2019
On the Twinkies side, Buck and Margo are back!
Buck and Margo are back! https://t.co/a4uFO9ayhd #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/O9oQP97c22
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) June 29, 2019
Gross. Anyway, it’s Michael Pineda taking the bump, and if you’re thinking, jeez, Michael Pineda is just about as bad as Iván Nova, you know, you’re not wrong. The good news here is that Pineda is at a 5.02 ERA on the season. Generally, he’s been very vulnerable to the long ball, but Pineda has surrendered just one in his last five starts. Time to send this fella to the showers early with some fireworks, White Sox.
Oh, and there’s a chance that Pineda may have to leave the game with a tongue injury, because in a snapshot I truly have never seen before, this is how Pineda delivers his pitches:
So, either the tongue is tipping his breaking stuff, or it may get gnawed off or weakened during a particularly tough outing. Let’s go after Pineda’s tongue today, White Sox!
Ballgame is at, you guessed it, 3:12 p.m., on NBCSCH and WGN-AM. We have three options to write today’s recap, and the game itself will determine who does: me, Brett, or Robby the Recapper. None of us anticipated a 3:12 game, so no matter what, the recap is probably coming later tonight; hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.