Normally, I like to get the game preview started relatively early. Usually, we know the pitching matchups well ahead of time, and I can start at least writing about the pitchers and get most of the preview done. Then I can add the lineups and a couple of sentences about those closer to game time. Unfortunately, when I went to start on this preview, both teams had TBD for their pitchers.
Ordinarily, this would be Stephen Kolek’s turn in the Royals’ rotation, but he’s about to become a father for the first time, and he is understandably away from the team. So the Royals are going to have to come up with a Plan B. I’m sure they know what their plan is. They probably even know what their three backup plans after that are. But they didn’t bother to tell me.
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The White Sox, I think, were hoping to recall Noah Schultz from his rehab assignment. But when he last pitched on Sunday, it didn’t exactly go well, as he allowed two hits, a walk, and two hit-by-pitch in only 2.2 innings of work. I did some digging and managed to figure out that with Schultz not quite ready, the White Sox plan to turn to former Royals’ farm hand, David Sandlin.
Sandlin has made three appearances for the White Sox this year, including two starts, and the 6’4″ righty has struck out more than a batter per inning, but has also walked more than half as many. His 52.2% Left-On-Base percentage figures to climb, but the 12.1% K-BB% doesn’t leave room for a ton of improvement. Sandlin has a six-pitch mix, but he leads with a four-seamer that averages 97 and grades out as one of the best fastballs in the sport. After that, he mostly throws curveballs with a decent smattering of cutters. The sinker, sweeper, and changeup are all thrown less than 10% of the time, and he struggles to get them in the strike zone.
Sandlin succeeds by getting hitters to chase, but he doesn’t get a ton of whiffs. The Royals will need to be patient with him, or they could end up hitting his pitches, which often lead to groundballs. As those of us who watched Eric Hosmer know, groundballs are outs far too often, even when they’re hit hard.
Steven Cruz will be the opener for the Royals, Mitch Spence got called up to take Stephen Kolek’s roster spot while he’s on paternity leave and will be the bulk reliever. I think we’re all more familiar with both of them than we’d like to be at this point. Spence has a negative K-BB%, so there’s not a lot of hope he’ll even improve. He had been a serviceable pitcher for the Athletics, I wish I understood what happened there. The Cruz Missile, on the other hand, had been enjoying a bit of a renaissance until the three-run bomb against the Cardinals. Even with that bomb given up, he has a 2.70 ERA with a 20% K-BB% over his last 8 appearances spanning 10 innings. Hopefully he can show some juice, today and get us off on the right foot.
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Lineups
As you can see, Kyle Teel has made his triumphant return to the White Sox lineup after missing a large chunk of the season following an injury during the World Baseball Classic. Honestly, I’d rather face Munetaka Murakami but I guess I don’t get to choose.
The Royals finally got Bobby Witt Jr. back into the lineup. He will be the Designated Hitter tonight, batting second. Hopefully, they aren’t risking further aggravating his injury by getting him back in the lineup so soon. Unfortunately, with Bobby DHing the Royals have chosen to keep Salvador Perez in the lineup, so he will play first, and both John Rave and Kameron Misner will ride the pine despite both being much more interesting to watch than Sal right now.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sports.yahoo.com ’
