Gamethread: Guardians at White Sox

Happy Wednesday. Well, it’s not too happy, but let’s pretend that it is. The Cleveland Guardians will play against the Chicago White Sox in the second game of this important three-game set, after their extra-inning win last night. To say the least, that was a game we really needed. But, we move onto the next and hope for the best. A win tonight is imperative — but the White Sox will have to do it against Triston McKenzie, the young righty for Cleveland.

McKenzie is a strikeout machine, to say the least. He has developed greatly this year for the Guardians, and has a 10-11 record with a 3.08 ERA and 0.97 WHIP. His last time out against the South Siders in August, he had an amazing game, with 14 strikeouts. Let’s just hope tonight is not a repeat of that. His last game was against the Minnesota Twins last week, where he went seven innings with seven hits, three runs, and eight strikeouts.

The important thing for the White Sox tonight will be to make contact and be patient. McKenzie has had problems with walks in the past, but seems to be better with that now. He uses a variety of just three pitches, with his fastball being used the most at 56%. He follows it with a slider (22.1%) and curveball (21.8%).

Lance Lynn will take the mound for Chicago, and he has been very familiar with the Guardians this year. In fact, his last start was against them last week in what was a very important makeup game, and he delivered. He went 6 ¹⁄₃ innings with six hits, two runs, one walk, and six strikeouts and got the win. He has improved each and every game since coming back from injury in the middle of the season, and currently has a 7-5 record with a 3.99 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. Let’s hope he can bring some of his fire and intensity to the mound tonight. Lynn uses a variety of six pitches starting with his fastball at 45.4%. He follows with a cutter (23%), sinker (13.5%), curveball (8.7%), slider (5.1%), and changeup (4.3%).

Elvis Andrus will continue to lead it off, followed by Yoán Moncada and José Abreu. Eloy Jiménez is in as the DH, and Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn have the outfield corners. AJ Pollock is in center, Yasmani Grandal is behind the plate, and Romy González closes it out at second base. Luis Robert gets the night off tonight.

Game time is at 7:10 p.m. CT. Watch on NBCSCHI, and NBCSCHI + for the Spanish broadcast. On the radio, as always it’s ESPN 1000.