Gamethread: Guardians at White Sox

The White Sox will be trying to stop a six-game losing streak tonight, doing so without Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Kendall Graveman and anybody else who gets shipped out between the time this is typed and the first pitch. Touki Toussaint better go deep into the game, because the bullpen will be as empty as a Rick Hahn promise to resign if he’s part of the problem.

Not that most folks will see the empty pen, because in its never-ending attempt to remove itself from importance in American culture, MLB has designated tonight an Apple+ game to soak a few suckers. We can not see it together, but the way the Sox play these days, that’s probably a good thing.

Toussaint has been having control problems of late — 13 walks and three HBP in 21 innings in July — which doesn’t bode well for a long stint, especially given Touki finished Wednesday’s game with an inning of relief. But, what the heck, it’s been a long time since it mattered whether the White Sox won a game, so maybe they’ll just let Toussaint suffer, as they did when he had to go 97 pitches in relief in Atlanta swelter two weeks ago.

Facing Touki will be Xzavion Curry — if you bet there would be a game this season featuring a Touki vs. a Xzavion, you win the pool — a righty who is really a reliever and who has only gone three innings in each of his two starts. So look for a lot of bullpen action from the team that still has one. Curry will be throwing roughly 50% 93 mph-ish fastballs and 33% sliders to a White Sox lineup that has Jake Burger, last night’s entire offense, hitting fifth and playing third, and Luis Robert Jr., who’s 4-for-25 with no homers and 13 strikeouts during the losing streak, in his usual No. 3 spot.

Andrew Benintendi, lf
Tim Anderson, ss
Luis Robert Jr., cf
Eloy Jiménez, DH
Jake Burger, 3b
Gavin Sheets, 1b
Oscar Colás. rf
Zach Remillard, 2b
Seby Zavala, c

Toussaint faces essentially the same Cleveland lineup that won 6-3 last night.

S. Kwan LF
A. Gimenez 2B
J. Ramirez 3B
J. Naylor 1B
J. Bell DH
W. Brennan CF
O. Gonzalez RF
B. Naylor C
G. Arias SS

First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Central, with severe storms due after the first few innings — real ones, not the kind that took place in the stands this week. Usual radio, with that Apple+ insult the only TV.