Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox

Greetings from the practically balmy Chicago! Who needs that beautiful Glendale weather when we have melting snow?

White Sox are coming off a 4-4 tie with the Angels yesterday, making their record entering the third day of spring training games 0-1-1. Sox will face the Rangers a couple more times this spring before not seeing them again ... until April in Chicago (something I will never understand: playing warm weather teams in April, at home).

Ace Lucas Giolito takes the mound today. Giolito is coming off two Cy Young-caliber seasons, and with the addition of Ethan Katz in the offseason he’ll keep getting better and better. Giolito is facing off against Kohei Arihara, who was signed by Texas in December after six years with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League.

Today’s lineup is:

Jerry Narron is said to be the catching coach, but it sure seems he was brought on for his lineup card calligraphy skills.

Yoán Moncada is back at 3B, Andrew Vaughn is getting some DH practice in, and Leury García is back in action after last year’s momentum was brought to an abrupt halt after a headfirst slide through first resulted in an injury. We’re also getting a look at Jonathan Lucroy behind the plate for the first time this year. This writer is a fan of Lucroy, so she is not disappointed to see him in the lineup.

TV coverage is back on NBCSN at 2:05 p.m., with MLBN taking the (one hour?) delayed coverage for those outside of Chicago. Tune in to ESPN 1000 to hear the dulcet tones of Len Kasper and Connor McKnight.