Gamethread: White Sox at Blue Jays

Happy Wednesday and happy June, it’s a beautiful day for baseball!

Although May wasn’t exactly how we planned it, we move onto the next month and keep it going. Here are some positive highlights from the last month that may be fun to watch.

The Chicago White Sox are up north at the Rogers Centre to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the second game of this three-game set. After a contest that was lost by mental mistakes and bad luck last night, the good thing is that the offense did seem to be more alive than it has been as of recently. With lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu being on the mound tonight for the Blue Jays, hopefully Chicago can have a breakout game and try to get its record back to .500, again.

Michael Kopech will be on the mound for the White Sox, as he continues the best season of his young career. He is currently 1-1 (let’s get him some run support tonight), with a 1.29 ERA and 0.86 WHIP, which are some of the best numbers in all of baseball. He also has 39 strikeouts in 42 innings pitched. Kopech’s last outing was against New York at Yankee Stadium, and he had an outstanding performance against one of the best offensive teams in baseball, going seven innings with just one hit, and six strikeouts. Kopech will face another tough lineup tonight, but hopefully since he is well-rested (nine days between starts!) he will be ready for the challenge. He relies on four pitches that all have great movement, with his fastball being used the most at 65.5%. Kopech also throws a slider (20.1%), curveball (13.7%), and changeup (0.7%).

Hyun-Jin Ryu will be on the mound for the Blue Jays tonight. This is his third year in Toronto after spending the beginning of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ryu will be on the mound for his sixth appearance, and holds a 2-0 record this season. He has a 1.35 WHIP, but his ERA is a bit up there, at 5.48. His last game was against the Angels, where he went five innings with six hits, two runs, and one strikeout. This year, Ryu throws four pitches including a fastball (41.8%), changeup (22.8%), curveball (19.9%), and cutter (15.4%). The White Sox have seen him well, especially last year, when he went 0-2 with a 9.31 ERA against Chicago. It is the perfect opportunity to (hopefully) see some players besides Andrew Vaughn and José Abreu heat up.

The lineup looks a bit different tonight, with AJ Pollock leading off and back in the lineup after feeling a bit under the weather. Vaughn will continue in the 2-spot, with Abreu behind him. Luis Robert is finally back and playing DH tonight, while Jake Burger takes third base. Leury García is at second, followed by Adam Engel in center. Reese McGuire will look to rake against his old team again, as Danny Mendick is in at shortstop closing out the lineup.

Game time is at 6:07 p.m. CT. Tune into NBCSCHI to watch with Jason and Gordon, and listen in at ESPN 1000.