If Lance Lynn's mighty struggles against the Houston Astros doomed the White Sox's chances before Game 1 started, then it stands to reason that Lucas Giolito's dominance over the Astros since he became a Cy Young contender would carry equal weight. He's thrown two starts against Houston in his career, and both were complete games, including one shutout. Add up the lines from the two games, and you're looking at: 18 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 HR, 1 BB, 17 K.
It doesn't quite work that way for fans, especially ones of a team that doesn't have a rich history of overcoming the odds, which makes the times they've fumbled away favorable matchups all the more painful. White Sox fans are largely to expect the worst and hope for the best passable.
Their most recent performance against Framber Valdez back on July 18 was just that. Steady pressure resulted in four single tallies, including solo shots by Yoán Moncada and Tim Anderson. Three of their seven hits went for extra bases, and they drew four free bases on top of that (two walks, two HBPs). It was more than enough for a Carlos Rodón who was at the top of his game.
The White Sox appear to have their best possible lineup against a lefty like Valdez, even though he might prefer facing righties thanks to his changeup. His splits are slightly better against righties on the season...
- vs. RHB: .219/.305/.321
- vs. LHB: .225/.354/.363
... but on splits like these, it's possible they're at least partially formed by a team's better lefties staying in to face him, while the lesser lefties get swapped out for equally unremarkable platoon bats.
Either way, the White Sox don't really have that to consider. Of the four lefties they sent out to face Lance McCullers Jr., three were switch-hitters. Gavin Sheets is the only one who's being replaced lefty for righty, and Andrew Vaughn homered off Valdez the first time they met.
Otherwise, Leury García playing over César Hernández is the only thing to first-guess, because he has 13 homers off lefties this season in just 202 plate appearances, which exceeds the number of extra-base hits García has against lefties this year (nine over 139 PA). That's the only thing I'd actually do differently, but a theoretically slightly better ninth hitter isn't enough to swing the game. It comes down to more people doing their jobs, starting with the starter.
As for relievers, Tony La Russa should have all hands on deck, with his best five relievers yet to be used. Dusty Baker let the White Sox see Kendall Graveman and Ryan Pressly before they had to, although there's enough of an argument for knocking off rust in lower-leverage situations that it shouldn't yet be a factor.
For Houston's lineup, the only change involves Michael Brantley and Yordan Alvarez exchanging their positions from Game 1, and Chas McCormick playing center instead of Jake Meyers, but the rest of the batting order remains untouched.
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First Pitch
TV: MLB Network
Lineups:
| POS | WHITE SOX | ORDER | ASTROS | POS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS | Tim Anderson | 1 | Jose Altuve | 2B |
| CF | Luis Robert | 2 | Michael Brantley | DH |
| 1B | José Abreu | 3 | Alex Bregman | 3B |
| C | Yasmani Grandal | 4 | Yordan Alvarez | LF |
| LF | Eloy Jiménez | 5 | Yuli Gurriel | 1B |
| 3B | Yoán Moncada | 6 | Carlos Correa | SS |
| DH | Andrew Vaughn | 7 | Kyle Tucker | RF |
| 2B | Leury García | 8 | Chas McCormick | CF |
| RF | Adam Engel | 9 | Martin Maldonado | C |
| RHP | Lucas Giolito | SP | Framber Valdez | LHP |
(Photo by Thomas Shea/USA TODAY Sports)
