Gamethread: Colombia at White Sox

After an absolutely brutal blowout loss, knocking Dylan Cease out of the box in both the first AND second innings (ST rules!), the White Sox will aim to bounce back in an exhibition matchup against Colombia. Don’t get too excited though, since most of our stars and starters are playing in the WBC; the lineup definitely is not anything to write home about.

Jesse Scholtens is on the mound in his third Spring Training outing for the South Siders, where he has already thrown five innings where he has given up six hits, a homer, and three earned runs. (I guess Plan A for the surprise fifth starter had MLB handed down a just suspension to a White Sox starter has been revealed?) Scholtens’ Spring Training ERA is sitting at 5.40, but for the most part he has limited any walks and still striking out five batters. Perhaps some Ethan Katz magic could do the trick, but I’m excited to see how he fares today against the Colombian national team.

This might be the wildest White Sox lineup of Cactus League 2023, but we pretty much have a Triple-A squad today. Adam Haseley leads it off and is starting in CF; despite my still being angry that he was involved in the Danny Mendick injury last year, Haseley is having a pretty solid Spring Training: 4-for-12 at the plate with two RBIs, and flashing his speed with three stolen bases.

Haseley will hold down the fort in the outfield alongside Zach Remillard and Victor Reyes, who are batting .250 and .231, respectively, as some our minor leaguers battle for a spot on the big league roster. While we don’t have some of the usual guys playing today (Leury García, Billy Hamilton, Jake Burger), we do get to see how some of our prospects match up against some of the best players from Colombia.

William Cuevas is on the mound for Colombia, who was in and out of the big leagues from 2009-18, throwing 22 ¹⁄₃ innings in the majors and racking up a whopping 8.06 ERA. The Colombian team is sure to have some power up and down their lineup, and we’ll even see Los Angeles Angels infielder Gio Urshela batting as the DH against us today; sadly, we’ve seen him hurt us a few times with a career .294 BA against the White Sox.

Let’s see what these young guys can do today — first pitch is at 2:05 p.m. CT!