The sort of consistency we’ve seen out of Sale may be paving an early road to the Cy Young award that has eluded him thus far in his career. Last time out, Sale rode his four-seamer and change-up more than he had in any start this season to a complete game performance against the Yankees. He also got fewer swings and misses than he has in a 2016 game – but the low strikeout results allowed him to finish the game with fewer than 100 pitches. The Astros offense strikes out at a higher rate than any other team in the majors, so I think we can expect Sale’s chameleon act to continue, and his pitch usage to adapt in favor of attacking this lineup more aggressively.

Collin McHugh’s first season in Houston was also his first full season. The waiver claim posted a 2.76 DRA in 2014 and struck out 25.4 percent of the batters he faced. Since then, he’s watched his K-rate fall, and his DRA climb. Thus far in 2016 he’s been a negative WARP player with a 5.59 DRA. He’s had a couple of nice starts mixed in with a handful of short, unimpressive outings. The latter includes his season debut, in which he never escaped the first inning while allowing five earned runs.

Good news: Jimmy Rollins is not batting second in the lineup. Bad news: Carlos Sanchez is in the game and batting second in the lineup. Good news: Jerry Sands‘ platoon splits this season haven’t been huge, so Robin Ventura regularly exposing him to starts against right-handed pitching hasn’t blown up in his face too badly. Bad news: Jerry Sands has been terrible, in general, against all-handed pitching.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Carlos Sanchez – 2B
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Jimmy Rollins – SS
7. Jerry Sands – DH
8. Alex Avila – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Astros Lineup:

1. Jose Altuve – 2B
2. George Springer – RF
3. Carlos Correa – SS
4. Tyler White – DH
5. Marwin Gonzalez – 1B
6. Evan Gattis – C
7. Luis Valbuena – 3B
8. Jake Marisnick – CF
9. Tony Kemp – LF

Lead Photo Credit: Noah K. Murray – USA Today Sports Images

Through four games against Minnesota, the White Sox are 4-0, outscoring them 20-6 in the process.  Although the Twins are basically consigned to a lost season at this point, trailing the 4th-place Tigers by six games with a -47 run differential, that doesn’t mean things can’t be unfortunately chippy and irritating! After Byung-ho Park was, by all appearances, inadvertently hit by a pitch, Minnesota appeared to retaliate by drilling Jose Abreu in the ribs, causing the benches to clear and Robin Ventura to get ejected.  Fortunately no punches were thrown, and as an individual who prioritizes the White Sox staying off the DL over asserting some sort of archaic masculinity, I prefer vengeance in the form of continuing to murder the Twins’ season instead of beaning Kurt Suzuki.

Tyler Saladino gets a second consecutive start as Jimmy Rollins evidently has some sort of illness.  It is increasingly looking like Saladino’s glove is a substantial upgrade on Rollins’ and it is quite possibly greater than the gap between their bats at this point.

It is only May 7th and Minnesota is frantically reordering the deck chairs while most of steerage has drowned and they are realizing they underestimated how many lifeboats they’d need by several orders of magnitude.  Accordingly, Darin Mastroianni will be leading off.  This will be his first game in the majors since 2014, when he put up an OPS of .322, but I suppose something about his .577 OPS in AAA makes the Twins think there’s something there. This is the first time I have ever heard of Jorge Polanco, who is starting for Brian Dozier and hitting 7th, although I suppose he hit okay in AAA? Joe Mauer is getting a day off. Eduardo Nunez is playing short and Oswaldo Arcia is hitting against a lefty who eviscerates lefties at a historic level.

The White Sox really should win this game. Please win this game.

White Sox Lineup

1. Adam Eaton – RF

2. Austin Jackson – CF

3. Jose Abreu – 1B

4. Todd Frazier – 3B

5. Melky Cabrera – LF

6. Brett Lawrie – 2B

7. Avisail Garcia – DH

8. Dioner Navarro – C

9. Tyler Saladino – SS

Twins Lineup

1. Darin Mastroianni – RF

2. Eduardo Nunez – SS

3. Miguel Sano – DH

4. Trevor Plouffe – 3B

5. Byung-ho Park – 1B

6. Oswaldo Arcia – LF

7. Jorge Polanco – 2B

8. Kurt Suzuki – C

9. Danny Santana – CF