Gamethread: White Sox vs. Angels

If you haven’t already done so, read Janice Scurio’s excellent piece covering some of the people honored tonight during the White Sox AAPI Heritage Night festivities, it should be a spectacular night.

Hopefully, the Pale Hose will keep the good feelings going into the game, as they face off for a second time against the Los Angeles Angels. Tonight’s matchup features Lucas Giolito (3-4, 3.98 ERA) and southpaw Tyler Anderson (2-0, 4.81 ERA).

Anderson has regressed to his usual numbers after an All-Star season with the Dodgers last year. He gives up, on average, a shade more than one homer per nine innings and has a walk rate that’s nearly as high as his strikeout rate. So while Andrew Benintendi is down at the seventh spot, as is expected for him against lefties, this might have been the one occasion where it would be beneficial to keep him at the top to help elevate the pitch count and put early pressure on Anderson on the basepaths.

Meanwhile, it’ll be up to the heart of the lineup to take advantage of Anderson’s less-than-stellar stuff and barrel up when possible. Anderson’s fly ball rate is 39%, so even though the Angels have won in his last four starts, it should be a good matchup for the White Sox bats.

Here’s the full lineup for the South Siders tonight:

Meanwhile, the Angels face off against the consistently inconsistent Lucas Giolito. His highs have been higher this year, but he’s still given up a lot of hard contact, resulting in a home run in each of his last five starts. In addition, in his most recent outing against the Detroit Tigers, Giolito struggled to make it past the third inning.

Shohei Ohtani has hit Giolito well historically, hitting .300 against him with two homers. Meanwhile, the Angels skipper Phil Nevin has curiously sat Mickey Moniak, Luis Rengifo, and Matt Thaiss on the bench in favor of struggling hitters Jared Walsh and Taylor Ward and backup Chad Wallach. To his credit, Ward has hit .333 against Giolito with a home run, so perhaps Nevin hopes that trend from the last six at-bats against Gio will continue.

Here’s the full lineup for the Angels:

Game time is at 7:10 p.m. Central on NBC Sports Chicago and ESPN Radio 1000.