Gamethread: Padres at White Sox

The White Sox (6-5) and Padres (3-4) will square off this afternoon at Camelback Ranch. The South Siders beat the powerful Dodgers by a score of 9-0 yesterday, so they have some positive momentum despite not having Andrew Vaughn (more on him in a bit).

Righthander Lucas Giolito will start for the White Sox, and this will be his second start of spring training. His first start went quite nicely, as he pitched three shutout innings against Milwaukee. In those innings, he struck out four, and he only allowed two Brewers to reach base (a harmless walk and a harmless single). Last year, Giolito pitched 178 ²⁄₃ innings and had a 3.53 ERA, 3.30 xERA, 3.79 FIP, and 3.75 xFIP. The White Sox would happily accept another season like that from him. Of course, all White Sox fans hope that ownership is able to restore its relationship with Giolito after the recent salary dispute.

Righthander Joe Musgrove, 29, will be San Diego’s starting pitcher. In 2021, Musgrove had a 3.18 ERA, 3.90 xERA, 3.70 FIP, and a 3.65 xFIP in 181 ¹⁄₃ innings. Those numbers rendered him a 3.3-fWAR pitcher. These numbers are strong overall, but like many Padres, he faded down the stretch last season. September and October were a struggle for him, as he had a 4.64 ERA, and opposing hitters had an OPS of .860 against him in those months.

Here are this afternoon’s starting lineups:

Earlier, the White Sox made the following announcement regarding Andrew Vaughn’s injury during yesterday’s game:

The injury could have been much worse, so this is a positive update on Vaughn. Let’s hope he makes a quick, healthy recovery.

The first pitch is scheduled to take place at 3:05 p.m. CST, and WMVP 1000 AM will have the radio coverage (no TV coverage today). Let’s get win No. 7.