Gamethread: White Sox at Guardians

The team announced one roster move before today’s game:

The vibes have been good so far in May for the Sox, winning 11-of-19. They enter the week at 19-29 and 6 1⁄2 games back of the first-place Minnesota Twins. Today starts a seven-game road trip against AL Central opponents in which the Good Guys hope to keep the positive momentum going.

Tonight at Progressive Field, the Pale Hose will face the Cleveland Guardians, who are in third place in the AL Central with a 20-26 record. The squads faced off last week for a three-game set in Chicago, where the Sox took two-of-three from a Cleveland team that was without two of its best players. However, that will not be the case for this week’s showdown, as José Ramírez is in tonight’s lineup, and Josh Naylor will be on the bench. Naylor will likely play on Tuesday, as he started the previous three games, including a doubleheader on Sunday against the Mets after missing a few games last week with leg tightness.

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Because the Sox have zero pitching depth and with the recent injury to [redacted], they’re throwing things at the wall tonight to see what sticks. It appears that Jimmy Lambert is getting the nod this evening to open up the contest, and it is unclear how many innings he’s set to pitch. Lambert has thrown primarily out of the bullpen since his major league debut in 2020. Last season, he made two spot starts in April, pitching a combined 6 2⁄3 innings and giving up four runs. He took the loss in both contests. So far this season, if Lambert has been anything, it’s unpredictable. In his most recent outing (10 days ago, on May 12!), he went one inning, surrendering one run on two hits and one walk. In 2023, he owns a 6.23 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, and -0.3 WAR. Not great, folks. The Guardians can expect to see a four-pitch mix from Lambert: 4-seam fastball (52.9%), slider (26.4%), curveball (11.2%) and changeup (9.4%).

Baseball Savant

Opposite Lambert, the Guardians will send Hunter Gaddis to the mound, who has been back and forth between Triple-A Columbus and Cleveland this season. The Guardians called up the rookie to replace Peyton Battenfield, who went on the IL with a sore right shoulder. Gaddis has faced the Sox once so far in his young career, on Sept. 15, 2022, when he allowed seven runs on eight hits and one walk in four innings. Of the eight hits, five were home runs, including bombs by Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn, Yasmani Grandal, and Yoán Moncada. Gaddis relies on four pitches: 4-seam fastball (37.8%), cutter (36.8%), changeup (18.4%) and curveball (7%).

Baseball Savant

Here is the starting lineup for the White Sox:

Here is the starting lineup for the Guardians:

The game is at 5:10 p.m. CST. Watch on NBCSCHI and listen in at ESPN-AM 1000.