Here's how the White Sox and Braves will line them up for the opener of a three-game series that could be interrupted by weather. Chris Flexen has his work cut out for him.
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| Braves | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Ronald Acuña Jr., RF | 1 | Andrew Benintendi, LF |
| Ozzie Albies, 2B | 2 | Yoán Moncada, 3B |
| Austin Riley, 3B | 3 | Luis Robert Jr., CF |
| Matt Olson, 1B | 4 | Andrew Vaughn, 1B |
| Marcell Ozuna, DH | 5 | Gavin Sheets, DH |
| Michael Harris II, CF | 6 | Paul DeJong, SS |
| Orlando Arcia, SS | 7 | Nicky Lopez, 2B |
| Travis D'Arnaud, C | 8 | Martín Maldonado, C |
| Jarred Kelenic, LF | 9 | Dominic Fletcher |
| Charlie Morton | SP | Chris Flexen |
Clubhouse notes from James Fegan
-- Lenyn Sosa is in the White Sox clubhouse, but has not been added to the active roster despite Eloy Jiménez being out of the lineup due to the left adductor strain he suffered on Sunday.
"I think he had this last year a little bit, so kind of similar," said Pedro Grifol. "We're still in a holding pattern. He went to see the doctors. We haven't gotten any results back yet. We'll wait to make that decision when we get all the information."
Gavin Sheets is starting at DH on Monday but is likely to be platooned due to his struggles against lefties. Grifol was reluctant to address the chronic nature of Jiménez's injuries, but defended his player all the same.
"There's things you can do to put yourself in a position for that not to happen," Grifol said. "He's doing those, we feel ... We talked about it this morning, we talked about routines in between at-bats. Believe me, we're exhausting everything we can to make sure we prevent these."
-- Reynaldo López and Aaron Bummer are back at Guaranteed Rate Field in Braves uniforms, and both have plenty of fond memories and old friends they are catching up with. López said there's no extra edge to facing his old team, but he is scheduled to start Tuesday after spending his last few years in Chicago in the bullpen.
"It’s nice to come back as a starter, and it feels nice that the team showed confidence in me to be a starter," López said via interpreter. "Hopefully I proved that I can handle it in spring training, and it’s nice to feel right now that I don’t have to prove anything. That they have the confidence in me and all that’s left for me is to go out and do my job."
-- The White Sox struck out looking seven times on Sunday, and there's always a need to adjust to the strike zone as it's being called that day. But after two straight seasons of the Sox being one of the most chase-happy offenses in baseball, Grifol is trying to find encouragement in seeing borderlines takes.
“To be able to draw walks, you’ve got to be OK with striking out looking if you don’t think it’s a strike," Grifol said. "The strikeouts start to add up when you don’t want to take that third strike and you start expanding the strike zone. So the way we evaluate this? Yes, we struck out seven times looking, but how many of those were strikes that were in the strike zone? And if they weren’t in the strike zone, then we’re good with it, because we’re teaching and practicing and preaching plate discipline.
"Don’t be afraid to take a pitch 3-2 when you know it’s a ball. Don’t be afraid to do that. We’re going to celebrate it, we’re not going to jump your ass for it."
