Monday night’s effort from Miguel Gonzalez set beside Todd Frazier’s heroics put the White Sox in a bit of a house money situation for the series. Their first win of the season with the fifth starter pitching in the bag, they’ll try to further capitalize and extend their win streak to five games, which would be the third such streak for the season. A victory would also seal a series win, always a big accomplishment on the road.
Carlos Rodon’s 2016 is not yielding the results that the path his 2015 season carved out for him. The third of an inning debacle against the Angels didn’t help much, but he’s also allowed 11 runs in his three following starts. The standout within, is a 6 2/3 inning outing in which he struck out seven while allowing only two hits against these Texas Rangers. Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes things don’t. A cFIP of 91 behind a 4.36 ERA suggests that Rodon’s season to date has something to do with things not breaking too well for him. Watching the games, you can see that he’s still got some room to step forward, making the decent peripherals all the more encouraging. The bullpen is, of course, somewhat taxed after an extra-inning affair, and with Wednesday being a day after night game featuring Mat Latos, who has yet to show himself as a likely candidate to go deep into games, there is a bit of extra pressure on Rodon to be efficient and keep from issuing free passes.
Known cut-up and injury risk Derek Holland will try to right his wobbly ship after a rough outing that very much resembled what Rodon experienced against the Angels. Holland was enjoying a nice start to the season before running into the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre where they torched him for 11 runs, all earned, in 2 2/3 innings. Performance for Holland has been largely inconsistent since knee surgery following the 2013 season. His strikeout rate has never recovered, and the reduced use of his sinker this season is evidenced by a ground ball rate about 10 percent lower than what he’s produced during the rest of his career.
White Sox Lineup:
- Adam Eaton – RF
- Jimmy Rollins – SS
- Jose Abreu – 1B
- Todd Frazier – 3B
- Melky Cabrera – LF
- Brett Lawrie – 2B
- Avisail Garcia – DH
- Dioner Navarro – C
- Austin Jackson – CF
Rangers Lineup:
- Delino DeShields – CF
- Rougned Odor – 2B
- Adrian Beltre – 3B
- Ian Desmond – LF
- Prince Fielder – DH
- Ryan Rua – 1B
- Elvis Andrus – SS
- Bryan Holaday – C
- Drew Stubbs – RF
Today’s game will be broadcast on CSN and FSSW at 7:05 p.m.
Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron – USA Today Sports Images