Gamethread: White Sox at Royals

Happy Wednesday! It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame, as the Chicago White Sox will play against the Kansas City Royals for the third time in this four-game set. The team ended on a high note last night with a win, and will look to inch closer and closer to first place in the division. Currently, they are only 1 ¹⁄₂ games behind the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians, who are tied for first. The gap is closing, now it’s time to start performing like a first-place team.

We have one of our aces on the mound tonight, Johnny Cueto. Cueto currently has a 4-5 record, 2.91 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. His last outing against the Texas Rangers wasn’t his best, but was still solid as he gave up 11 hits, three runs, and had just four strikeouts in the loss. In that game however, he was able to go eight innings. His ability to pitch deep into games has helped the team significantly, and would be nice to have again tonight as the bullpen recovers from yesterday’s doubleheader. Cueto has a mix of six pitches, with his sinker used the most at 27%. He also employs a changeup (22.6%), slider (20.4%), cutter (16.2%), fastball (13.7%), and has used a curveball one time this year. We don’t need the percentage for that, but I’ll give it anyways (0.1%).

Lefty Kris Bubic will make his 19th appearance of the season, and currently has a 2-6 record, 5.27 ERA, and 1.54 WHIP. If everything goes well, we should be able to hit him well — but you never know with this offense. His last game against the Boston Red Sox was solid, as he went six innings with four hits, two runs, one walk, and six strikeouts. For the first time in his career, Bubic has thrown four straight quality starts, and seems to be getting in a rhythm. Bubic relies on three pitches, using his his fastball more than half of the time at 51.5%. He also has a very good changeup (28.9%) and curveball (19.6%).

Josh Harrison will take the leadoff role tonight, followed by Luis Robert in center and Eloy Jiménez as the DH. José Abreu is back at first, followed by Andrew Vaughn in left field and Yoán Moncada at third. Yasmani Grandal is behind the plate, Gavin Sheets is in right, and Lenyn Sosa ends it off playing shortstop tonight.

Let’s hope we can tame Vinnie Pasquantino tonight.

Game time is at 7:10 p.m. CT. Tune into NBCSCHI to watch with Jason and Steve, and ESPN 1000 to listen in.