Gamethread: Twins at White Sox

The White Sox went into the first day of September with a little bit of momentum, after a players-only meeting prior to the game. But they still sit a game below .500 and nowhere near where they thought they would be at the beginning of the season. The team right now is barely hanging by a thread of hope to even still make the playoffs.

The Sox, in a somewhat odd, head-scratching move, send veteran Joe Kelly to the mound for Friday’s opener instead of possible Cy Young winner, Dylan Cease. As they look to get back to .500, nothing could go wrong by sending Kelly to the mound in what amounts to one of the team’s biggest games of the season, right?

Meanwhile the Twins, who come into Chicago hot having won five of their last six will send Sonny Gray with his 7-4 record and 3.04 ERA to the mound.

The Sox will field virtually the same lineup they have as of late except for Eloy Jiménez, who suffered a minor injury and is only available to pinch-hit. With veteran José Abreu DH’ing and Andrew Vaughn at first instead of left field, that makes veteran Leury García switch to left instead of third and after a day off yesterday, veteran Josh Harrison back at third.

The Twins lineup is virtually the same as it always is. Plus you know there is always the possibility of fireworks and flares when Kelly faces off against former Houston All-Star shortstop, Carlos Correa.

That said here is tonight’s starting lineup for what is sure to be a very interesting series between two longtime rivals:

The first pitch is scheduled to happen at 7:10 p.m. Central. As usual, NBC Sports Chicago will televise the game, and WMVP 1000 AM will have the radio coverage. Now can the Sox actually keep the momentum by winning a third straight tonight?