Gamethread: White Sox at Mariners

Welcome one and all to another edition of Late Night White Sox Baseball, this time in Seattle against the Mariners! (Don’t we all just loooove West Coast trips?) It’s Pride Night at T-Mobile Park, and whether or not we’re proud of the White Sox performance by night’s end has yet to be seen. However, given the last two games against the Dodgers, the Good Guys are most likely going to find a way to disappoint us.

Seattle (33-34) is coming off some Marlin fishing in the Puget sound, taking two of three from those Miami fish. Their starter, Bryan Woo, is coming off his second career start. Woo pitched 4 2⁄3 innings against the Halos, giving up two earned runs and four hits while striking out seven, garnering himself a no-decision for his troubles. Being that he is a relative unknown with a 10.80 ERA, expect the Pale Hose to perform poorly against him.

With regards to hitting, the Mariners offense is only slightly better than our Sox in terms of OPS (.693 vs. .684) and has a batting average (.229) that’s tied with the Tigers for 29th in all of MLB. The lineup, spearheaded by Julio Rodríguez, looks a little something like this:

Michael Kopech, who is set to face off against that lineup, is coming off of a solid start against the Marlins last Saturday. The Sox starter went five innings, with no earned runs, five hits, and six strikeouts. He’s quietly been a better starter for the Sox this year than his 3-5 record would have you believe, with a 4.03 ERA and 1.181 WHIP in 13 starts on the season. The tepid offense of the Mariners will hopefully give Michael little trouble, but the stagnant Sox hitters may fail to support him for a win.

That Sox lineup, which continues to be led off by two of the worst hitters on the team right now in Tim Anderson and Andrew Benintendi (who are also first and third in the league in plate appearances without a home run, by the way). No Clint Frazier or Yasmani Grandal tonight, with Benintendi reclaiming his spot in left field and Seby Zavala and his whopping 35 OPS+ behind the dish. The rest of the lineup looks like this:

It’s a 9:10 p.m. CT start for this game on the Pacific Coast. Apple TV+ and ESPN 1000 have the call for what is hopefully a good game on Pride Night in Seattle. (A late start and an Apple TV game, who wouldn’t want to watch this?)