Gamethread: White Sox at Padres

The White Sox may not have made the postseason, but they do have the opportunity to continue to play spoiler on this fine fall evening. The NL Wild Card race remains tight, with San Diego up by just two games on both the Phillies and the Brewers, who enter tonight tied for the final spot. The Padres are looking to pad their lead in the postseason race and snap a three-game skid, but they will have to get past Dylan Cease in order to do so.

Mike Clevinger gets the nod tonight for the San Diego ball club. The righthander, in his first season back after having Tommy John surgery in 2021, enters with a 4.49 ERA. His 6-7 record is accompanied with 35 walks and 88 strikeouts over 22 appearances this season. Clevinger pitched on Tuesday against the Rockies and went only four innings, giving up five earned runs. The Padres starter has not struggled this much since his debut season with Cleveland back in 2016.

Meanwhile, Dylan Cease is having a Cy Young-caliber season and will look to end with a strong outing. Dylan has already surpassed his career high in innings pitched this season. His start tonight will also tie his career high, with 32 starts in a season. In the month of September, Cease made five starts and posted a 1.13 ERA, striking out 32 batters over his 32 innings pitched. The righthander’s performance will be the one bright spot in a season of disappointment — even if he wasn’t named an All-Star.

Behind Dylan, Elvis Andrus will lead off followed by Mark Payton, who will slide over to left field for tonight’s game. Eloy Jiménez bats third as the DH, Gavin Sheets gets cleanup duty in right field, and Yoán Moncada will bat fifth behind him. The bottom half of the lineup starts with Andrew Vaughn in the 6-spot and playing first base, AJ Pollock playing center field, and Yasmani Grandal catching. Josh Harrison brings up the caboose, batting ninth and playing second base.

Game time is 7:40 p.m. CT and can be watched on NBC Sports Chicago. You can listen in on the usual ESPN 1000.