Gamethread: Astros at White Sox

Happy Sunday, and Happy Mother’s Day!

This afternoon, the Chicago White Sox will take on José Abreu and the Houston Astros as they try and take the series with a victory. The first two games of this series have been fun to watch, and yesterday was a big win for the White Sox as they were able to take the lead AND hold it late! Grabbing this win against the Astros will be huge moving forward in this homestand. Let’s take a look at who the South Siders will face from this highly-injured Houston pitching rotation.

Hunter Brown will be on the bump today, currently 3-1 with a 3.23 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. He was drafted in 2019 by the Astros and made his debut last September with the team. Brown has started out the year looking great, and didn’t give up a homer in the bigs until his last outing against the Los Angeles Angels (Hunter Renfroe took him deep). Brown looks to be a promising young pitcher for a staff that is struggling to string healthy arms together, but let’s just hope he doesn’t have the best outing today. He relies on four pitches, throwing his slider most often, at 34%. He follows with a fastball (33.7%), curveball (29.9%), and splitter (2.4%).

Lucas Giolito, who has been the ace of the White Sox pitching staff so far this year, is on the mound for his ninth appearance. He is 2-2, with a 3.59 ERA and 1.11 WHIP. He’s been a godsend for this terrible starting staff, and really looks like the old Giolito again. He has 50 strikeouts in 47 2⁄3 innings pitched, so that goes to show that he’s feeling confident with his stuff. His last outing against Kansas City got Giolito the win, as he went six innings with five hits, two runs, two walks, and nine strikeouts.

Tim Anderson will lead it off, followed by Andrew Benintendi and Andrew Vaughn. Yoán Moncada is at third base, and Luis Robert Jr. follows, looking to stay hot. Gavin Sheets is in right, and Jake Burger is back after being reinstated from Triple-A this morning. Carlos Pérez was optioned in his return. Hanser Alberto is at second, and Seby Zavala is behind the plate.

Jeremy Peña gets the day off for the ’Stros. Also, let’s just please go one more day without allowing a home run to Abreu, so we don’t have to hear about it.

Game time is at 1:10 p.m. CT on NBCSHI. Listen in at ESPN 1000.