Gamethread: Blue Jays at White Sox

Happy Southside jersey Monday! Today we welcome the Chicago White Sox (31-33) back home as they try and get their first home win against the Toronto Blue Jays (38-28).

We have some good news, and then some bad. But then some good news again!

The good news is Lance Lynn will be on the mound for his first home start of the season. The bad news is it looks like Yoán Moncada is heading to the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring. The good news again is that Tim Anderson is finally back!

Looking at the last few weeks, I really don’t know how we survived without the heart and soul of this team in Anderson, but credit to Danny Mendick for stepping up big time and doing a great job filling in at shortstop.

As a reward for his performance, expect to see Mendick more at second base.

Now onto today’s game, the White Sox will face a familiar face in José Berríos. The former Minnesota Twin is now with the Blue Jays after being acquired at last year's trade deadline, and quickly signing a seven-year, $131 million dollar contract extension with the team. We all remember what happened the last time we saw him at Guaranteed Rate Field in a Twins uniform (Gavin Sheets walk-off home run), so it will be interesting to see how the White Sox handle him tonight.

This year, Berríos has a 5-2 record with a bit of a higher ERA at 4.65, and a 1.24 WHIP. He hasn’t had his best stuff, but slowly is starting to perform more consistently. In his last game against the Baltimore Orioles, he went seven innings giving up three hits, three runs, and striking out eight. Berríos relies on four pitches with his fastball and curveball being used the most at 35.1% each. He also has a sinker (22.4%) and changeup (11%).

Lynn will look to bounce back from a poor start in Detroit as he gets more into rhythm. This will be his second appearance of the season, as he currently has a 6.23 ERA and 2.31 WHIP from his first outing where he went 4 ¹⁄₃ innings pitched with 10 hits, three runs, and four strikeouts against the Detroit Tigers. As the game went on and Lynn got his frustrations out, he seemed to pitch better and settle down. With that being said, tonight let’s all be the understanding fans instead of the fans who freak out just a little too much after one bad start.

Anderson is back in his leadoff spot as Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert follow him. The red-hot José Abreu and AJ Pollock will bat next, as Jake Burger gets the start at third base. Reese McGuire will be behind the plate as Adam Engel will be in right field, followed by Josh Harrison in the 9-spot and at second base.

(I will give credit to the Blue Jays, their caption is pretty good).

Game time is at 7:10 p.m. CT on this beautiful and hot, sunny day. Tune into NBCSCHI to watch and ESPN 1000 to listen in. Let’s start the home stand off good with a win!