Gamethread: White Sox at Mariners

Good afternoon White Sox fans! Today, the Chicago White Sox will take on the Seattle Mariners in the third and final game of this set as they look for the series win. As we know, every game is important moving forward, so let’s take a quick look at the other AL Central action today, so we know what to keep an eye out for.

The Minnesota Twins will play two games at Yankee Stadium starting at 2:05 pm CT in a doubleheader. We are all Aaron Judge fans today. The Cleveland Guardians will play against the Kansas City Royals again tonight. Royals, please do us some good, even if it’s just for one game. I know it doesn’t mean anything at all, really, but I guess I should add the Detroit Tigers into this division analysis. They play the Los Angeles Angels.

Back to our central focus, the team looks to rebound from a not-so-great game last night and come out strong this afternoon.

Before today’s game, Michael Kopech was reinstated from the injured list as Matt Foster returned to Charlotte.

Kopech will make the start today, whos 4-9 with a 3.58 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. He looked dominant to start the season but has been struck with little injuries in the second half of the season. His last outing shouldn’t really count as his last outing, but it was against the Kansas City Royals, where he started the game but didn’t record an out before being pulled. Unfortunately, he got tagged with four earned runs from that and had two walks. He uses four pitches, with his fastball being used the most at 61.8%. He follows with a slider (26.7%), curveball (10.4%), and changeup (1.2%).

The Mariners will trot out Luis Castillo. The righty has a 6-5 record with a 2.71 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. He also has 133 strikeouts in 122 ²⁄₃ innings pitched. The two-time All-Star spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds before being traded to the Mariners this trade deadline. He was a huge acquisition for their starting rotation, but let’s just hope we can get some runs across against him. He also relies on four pitches, including his fastball, which is thrown 31.9%. He also uses his changeup (23.9%), sinker (23.8%), and slider (20.4%).

Elvis Andrus continues to lead it off, followed by Yoán Moncada at third and José Abreu at first. Eloy Jiménez will DH, and Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn will take the outfield corners. AJ Pollock is in center, Josh Harrison is at second, and Seby Zavala is behind the plate.

The Mariners are honestly cool. Their version of the starting lineup is in the form of a video today.

Game time is at 3:10 pm CT. Watch on NBCSCHI and listen in at ESPN1000.