Gamethread: Yankees at White Sox

Happy Sunday! It’s a beautiful day to win a ballgame.

The New York Yankees (64-52) will close out their series with the Chicago White Sox (68-49) this afternoon as the South Siders look to steal a game to get the series win.

So far this series, we have seen just about everything from corn, clutch home runs, clutch home runs IN the corn, and exciting games overall. Taking this series from the Yankees would be big for the team moving forward, as they’re into one of their hardest stretches of the year coming up.

Let’s take a look at the starting pitchers for today.

Lefty Nestor Cortes will be on the mound for the Yankees, who is 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. With many players on the pitching staff being out due to injury or illness, Cortes has stepped up and done a solid job as a starter. In his last outing against the Kansas City Royals, he went 5 ²⁄₃ innings while allowing seven hits, five runs, and struck out five. It is also important to note that most of his outings tend to be around five or so innings, meaning we might see the Yankees bullpen a little early on if that trend continues. Cortes has five pitches, but relies mostly on his fastball that he throws 42.8% of the time, followed by his curveball at 23.5% of the time. He also has a slider, changeup, and sinker.

Lucas Giolito will take the mound as he looks to continue his great second half of the season. Overall, Giolito is 9-8 with a 3.81 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. His last outing against the Minnesota Twins was outstanding, as he went eight innings with just two hits, one run, and eight strikeouts. Giolito relies on four pitches, his fastball, which he uses 45% of the time, followed by his changeup (33.2%), slider (18.9%), and curveball (2.8%).

Tim Anderson will lead it off, followed by César Hernández and a red-hot José Abreu. Eloy Jiménez and Andrew Vaughn will take the outfield corners, and Yoán Moncada will DH for the day. Luis Robert will take center field coming off of a great game yesterday, followed by Danny Mendick and Seby Zavala.

Mendick was brought up today following the move to put Leury García on the seven-day concussion list.

Game time is at 1:10 p.m. CT. Watch on NBCSCHI or TBS and listen in at ESPN1000. Let’s go grab a series win!