Gamethread: Athletics at White Sox

Happy Sunday! Today the Chicago White Sox will finish off this series and homestand against the Oakland Athletics, currently sitting at 38-92, and will try and get a series split with a win. As we saw yesterday, hitting home runs will win you ball games. Imagine that! Let’s see if we can do it again today with Paul Blackburn on the mound.

The righty has appeared in 15 games this season, and is 3-3 with a 4.00 ERA and 1.45 WHIP. He didn’t debut until the end of May due to injuries, but since then has filled a starting role in the rotation. Blackburn’s last game was against the Kansas City Royals, where he went six innings with four hits, two runs, one walk, and six strikeouts. His game prior against the St. Louis Cardinals featured eight strikeouts as well. The California native made his MLB debut in 2017 and has been with the Athletics ever since. He uses a mix of six pitches, starting with his sinker the most at 23.7%. He follows with his cutter (20.6%), slider (19.1%), fastball (14.8%), curveball (12.1%), and changeup (9.6%).

The White Sox will throw a starting pitcher on the mound to pitch the game. He used to be SP #5 but at this point I don’t even know who the #5 pitcher is. So yeah, [redacted] is the guy.

Tim Anderson leads it off followed by surging power hitter Andrew Benintendi. Eloy Jiménez follows at the DH and Andrew Vaughn is at first. Yoán Moncada is back at third, Gavin Sheets is in right, and Yasmani Grandal is behind the plate. Lenyn Sosa is at second, and Oscar Colás is in center field.

Nothing is wrong with Luis Robert Jr., he just has a scheduled off-day. Probably from carrying this team all season.

Game time is at 1:10 p.m. CT. Watch on NBCSCHI and listen in at ESPN 1000. Here’s to one more game where both fans in the stands are trying to get their owners to sell their respective teams.