Gamethread: Royals at White Sox

Happy Sunday! Does anyone else feel like these last two off-days felt like forever? The Chicago White Sox are back in action today against the Kansas City Royals in their home opening series, trying to secure the series win.

We have our first Sunday afternoon baseball game of the season, and we will play it after two long rest days and a 6-0 win against the Royals on Thursday. The White Sox record lies at 4-4 going into today, and a win today will help secure a record over .500 for the first time this season. The Royals also have a .500 record, at 3-3.

On another note, the team shared some exciting news about their players, saying that a large percentage of the team received their vaccinations following Thursday’s game!

This is great news for the ball club, and the team had a positive message overall about the situation.

Also, Happy National Pet Day from the White Sox!

Feel free to include some pictures of your own pets in the comments in honor of this amazing day. I’m sure everyone wants to see some cute animals, and it’s even better if they’re in White Sox gear.

Now, onto today’s game. Righty Dylan Cease will face lefty Mike Minor, as the White Sox try and grab another win to continue their streak of consecutive games won against a left handed pitcher.

Cease started off shaky against the Los Angeles Angels last Sunday in his first start of the season, but managed to look better as the game went on. After facing the hard Angels lineup in Anaheim, hopefully he will have a better outing facing the Royals at home. He currently sits at a 5.79 ERA and had five hits, three walks, and three strikeouts in his first appearance of the season. If he can have better control today and hopefully get his strikeout numbers up, we should be able to see a solid outing and decent amount of innings from him today.

Minor will be on the mound today for the Royals, and although he is 1-0 on the season, he does have a 6.00 ERA. In his last game against the Texas Rangers on Saturday, April 3, he went six innings, allowing four hits and four earned runs. He also had two walks, but struck out a solid six batters. Minor spent his 2020 season with the Texas Rangers, and then was traded to the Oakland Athletics later in the season. He then signed with the Royals this offseason as they searched for more starting pitcher depth. Last year, he held a 5.60 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP in seven games played. His record wasn’t the best, as he went winless on the season at 0-5. Overall, if the White Sox can jump on him early and get some run support for Cease, we should be able to score a decent amount of runs with our offense.

Here is the starting lineup for today:

Tony La Russa continues to experiment with the lineup and outfielders as we await the returns of Adam Engel and Billy Hamilton. Today, he has Leury García playing right field and leading it, off followed by Luis Robert in the 2-spot, who is still looking for his first hit at home. Yermín Mercedes looks to continue his hot streak, and Andrew Vaughn will be starting in left field today after an off-day on Thursday. Zack Collins will catch today in place of Yasmani Grandal, and Danny Mendick will continue playing shortstop for the injured Tim Anderson. Mendick has been an excellent replacement thus far, collecting three hits his last game and currently owning a .667 batting average.

Here is how the Royals will line it up:

Tune into NBCSCH to watch the game and ESPN 1000 to listen in. Game time is soon, at 1:10 p.m. CT.