Gamethread: Rangers at White Sox

Happy Wednesday. After a day off yesterday, the Chicago White Sox (6-6) are back at Camelback Ranch to face the Texas Rangers (6-4), yet again. The South Siders have been streaky as of lately, losing five of their last six games. Normally that would be a cause for concern, but because it is spring training hopefully there is no worry.

Dylan Cease will start his second game this spring. In his first game out, he had an impressive debut. Everyone always knew that Cease had some of the nastiest pitches in the entire league, the only problem was his high pitch count, causing him to go a low amount of innings as a starter. His walks were a big contribution to that.

Cease’s last outing looked different, as he went three innings with just one walk, one hit, one run, and had five strikeouts. That many strikeouts in just three innings of work is always impressive, so let’s hope he can keep it up as time goes on. Seeing if he can be consistent will be important this season as he is a key role in the success of this starting rotation.

Lefty Martín Pérez will start for the Rangers, in his first appearance this spring training. The veteran started his career in 2007 with the Rangers, and underwent a lot of setbacks due to injuries over the years. In 2019 he signed a one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins, followed by a contract with the Boston Red Sox in 2021.

Pérez made multiple relief pitching appearances in the 2021 postseason after being a starter for most of the year. His ERA last season was 4.74, with a 1.51 WHIP. He has a variety of pitches, including a cutter, sinker, changeup, fastball, and curveball.

Tim Anderson will lead it off today, followed by Luis Robert and José Abreu. Yasmani Grandal and the red-hot Eloy Jiménez will bat in the 4-spot and 5-spot, followed by Yoán Moncada at third base. Leury García will serve as the DH today, followed by Josh Harrison at second base and Adam Engel trying out right field.

For some reason the Rangers have not put out their lineups on social media for any of their games recently, so I guess we will have to wait and get a surprise as to who we’re up against.

The game WILL be televised today, so make sure to tune into NBCSCHI to listen to Jason and Steve, or listen in at ESPN 1000! Game time is 3:05 p.m. CT.