And So it Begins – Lineups 9/10

Rick Porcello had no part in the recent Tigers sweep of the White Sox. The problem is, he’s taken part in quite a few victories vs the Southsiders this season. He’s 3-0 against them on the year, has given up just 3 runs in 22 innings. That doesn’t bode well for a lineup that is short of full strength. In his most recent effort against Chicago, he went 8 innings and used just 94 pitches to get there. What does that tell us? Yes, yes, as usual, there must be patience! He has (luckily?) lost his last 5 starts due in large part to a lack of run support rather than poor performance. His worst outing out of that bunch was a 4 run, 6 inning outing in Texas.

Jose Quintana has a problem. He not only lost his last two outings but he lost them badly. 5 innings would be the sum total of the two starts, and 12 runs were surrendered in them. Is he tired? Yes. Is there some regression from his balls in play style being so successful for so much of the year? Yes. Is it likely that he’ll have a 2 or 3 inning outing again? That remains to be seen, but I like to think that Robin Ventura and Don Cooper have spoken with him, watched him throw his side sessions and watched how he got beat the way he has in his recent appearances, and have made the decision to continue starting him for a reason. Philip Humber and Dylan Axelrod will be on the ready, no doubt, and if it looked that hopeless for Quintana, they would just go right to another option instead of letting Jose give it a shot.

Today’s Lineup:

1.De Aza – CF
2.Youk – 3B
3.Wise – LF
4.Paulie – 1B
5.Rios – RF
6.AJ – C
7.DHayan
8.Alexei – SS
9.Beckham – 2B

Youkilis has made his way back to the team following paternity leave. This is good. This is very good. This means that Jose Lopez and/or Ray Olmedo are not in the starting lineup, as much fun as we all have with novelties. As indicated when highlighting Porcello, it’s very important that the White Sox are patient and break into the bullpen. Without the pitch watching services of Adam Dunn it falls heavily on De Aza and Youk to set the tone and ensure that we don’t look at the board in the 7th inning and see that Porcello has only thrown 75 pitches.

Where to Watch
Game available in Chicago on WCIU, FoxSports Detroit in the Tigers market and will be picked up by MLB Network where blackouts or secondary game don’t apply. 7:10 Central start time.