If you can pull yourself away from replays of the White Sox triple play from Friday night, a far bigger factor in the team’s hopes for a playoff bid will be addressed today. Young prodigy Carlos Rodon make his first start Saturday after Monday night’s disaster where he lost all sense of the strike zone and failed to get more than a single out against the Angels.
The conflagration snapped a 10-game quality start streak for 23 year-old left-hander, who has managed to mostly be very productive despite having so much work left to do to refine his awesome raw stuff. Will his troubles continues to crater or will he feature newly smoothed out mechanics and continue his ascent to the upper echelon of AL starting pitchers?
Facing him will be a Texas lineup that features four lefties for some reason.
Rodon features a devastating slider, so while Prince Fielder and Rougned Odor are obviously everyday guys, and rookie Nomar Mazara is just an awesome talent, but Mitch Moreland is a career .233/.291/.359 hitter against lefties.
Don’t expect Melky Cabrera‘s hot start to alter the top of the lineup much. Robin Ventura said before Saturday’s game that he likes having Cabrera’s switch-hitting bat in the middle of the lineup. As such, Jimmy Rollins will return to the No. 2 hole after a day off. He’s hitting .217/.275/.370 so far on the year, but looked happy about some new shoes he got before the game, so maybe a hot streak is afoot.
The ageless Colby Lewis (he’s 36, actually) takes the mound for Texas. Despite a myriad of arm injuries, career detours to Japan, and mostly mediocre results (career cFIP of 100 on the nose), he can never be counted out, and managed to spin a career-high 204.2 innings last year.
White Sox Lineup:
- Adam Eaton – RF
- Jimmy Rollins – SS
- Jose Abreu – 1B
- Todd Frazier – 3B
- Melky Cabrera – LF
- Brett Lawrie – 2B
- Avisail Garcia – DH
- Alex Avila – C
- Austin Jackson – CF
SP – Carlos Rodon
Rangers Lineup:
- Delino DeShields – CF
- Nomar Mazara – RF
- Adrian Beltre – 3B
- Prince Fielder – DH
- Ian Desmond – LF
- Mitch Moreland – 1B
- Elvis Andrus – SS
- Rougned Odor – 2B
- Bryan Holaday – C
SP – Colby Lewis
Saturday’s game is on CSN at 1:10pm CT.
Lead Image Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn // USA Today Sports Images