Game Thread: Giants at White Sox

South Siders are on the hunt for the series win with Jonathan Cannon on the bump facing old man Verlander

The White Sox (27-56) are coming off a solid 1-0 win over the Giants (45-38) Saturday, and are looking for a series win to cap off a (surprisingly) competitive weekend of baseball. The pitching has been on point these last few games, so ideally righthander Jonthan Cannon can keep it up for the Good Guys.

Naturally, however, Chicago dropped some news about a half-hour before the game, after Luis Robert Jr. was notably missing from the lineup yet again. He’s now headed to the IL retroactive to June 26, but naturally he’s just been rotting on the bench and they are short a player on the roster. Not just informally, but officially now, 25 players for a 26-player roster. What a clown car.

Cannon is making his 11th start, and currently holds a 2-7 record and a 4.66 ERA across 63 2⁄3 innings. Cannon is fourth on the Sox in strikeouts (51) at an 18.1% strikeout rate, and has one of the lower walk rates on the team at 7.5% (21 walks). His walk rate is actually the only stat in his Baseball Savant percentile chart that isn’t completely blue.

Baseball Savant

The South Side offense has been fairly weak this series (wait, is two runs in two games bad?), and have combined to go just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position, and left 16 on base in the last two games. The first four batters of the lineup have been fairly consistent with Mike Tauchman leading off followed by Chase Meidroth, Andrew Benintendi, and Miguel Vargas. The good news is that Ryan Noda will actually be playing first base today, rather than sticking him in the outfield with no rhyme or reason.

The Giants are rolling with Grandpa Justin Verlander, making his 13th start of the season. Cannon and Verlander are having similar seasons, and Justin has yet to earn a win this season, but has five losses in 61 2⁄3 innings with a 4.52 ERA. He’s racked up 52 strikeouts at a 19.4% strikeout rate, with 23 walks at a higher walk rate than Cannon, at 8.6%.

Verlander has a more efficient offense behind him, though they have struggled this weekend against White Sox pitching, only posting three runs in two games, and didn’t score at all yesterday. Rafael Devers will still hold down the 2-spot and has been one of San Francisco’s top hitters, but he has struck out five times in the past two games against the South Siders.

First pitch will be thrown at 1:10 p.m. CT, and hopefully the full game will get in before rain or storms become an issue. You can watch the game over at CHSN, or tune into the radio broadcast at ESPN Chicago AM 1000. Let’s get the series dub!

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