Gamethread: Orioles at White Sox

Happy Sunday! Today, the Baltimore Orioles will take on the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, as the South Siders look to take their first series of the season with a win. There’s no one better to do it with than Dylan Cease, who will be on the mound against righty Grayson Rodriguez.

Some roster moves before the game:

Cease will be making his fourth start of the season, as he is currently 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA and 0.80 WHIP. He also has 24 strikeouts in 16 1⁄3 innings pitched. His last outing was against the Minnesota Twins, where he allowed just three hits, one run, two walks, and six strikeouts. His main issue this year is getting deeper in games, as his last two times out he has only gone five innings. Hopefully, today he can go six or seven and help preserve the bullpen, which has been busy as of late.

Rodriguez will get the start for the Orioles. He was drafted by the Orioles in 2018 with the 11th overall pick, and made his MLB debut this season. The 23-year-old, No. 2 O’s prospect has a lot of potential and has shown that he is a strikeout threat early. In his last outing, he went just 4 1⁄3 innings with six hits, five runs, four walks, and six strikeouts. Seems like a bit of a chaotic stat line, but normal in just your second career start. Rodriguez uses five pitches, with his fastball being used the most at 47.8%. He follows with his slider (26.9%), changeup (17.6%), curve (4.9%), and cutter (2.7%).

With Benintendi out, Luis Robert Jr. will lead it off followed by Andrew Vaughn. Gavin Sheets returns to the outfield (as if we’ve learned nothing from last time) and Eloy Jiménez will DH. The red-hot Jake Burger will stay in the lineup and play third, followed by Oscar Colás and Seby Zavala as Yasmani Grandal gets the day off. Lenyn Sosa and Elvis Andrus will close it out playing the middle infield.

Well, game time is TBA as of right now, but there does seem to be a window of no rain starting at around 3 p.m. CT. With the White Sox playing tomorrow and Baltimore not coming back to town, they will try to get this last game in today.