Chicago White Sox Morning BP: Avisail Garcia returns with 3 hits
Aug 17, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez (10) right fielder Avisail Garcia (26) and left fielder Alejandro De Aza (30) celebrate their win against the Toronto Blue Jays at U.S Cellular Field. The Chicago White Sox defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Over the weekend the Chicago White Sox won their home series over the Toronto Blue Jays, taking two-of-three to improve their record to 59-65, and within 3.5 games of the third place Cleveland Indians in the AL Central who are 62-61.
Of the successful weekend, maybe the biggest plus was not the winning, but the healthy return of Avisail Garcia on Saturday. For the two games he played in this weekend, Garcia totaled three hits, two runs, one RBI, one walk and struck out just once.
He left three runners on the bases in the two combined games.
In his first game since April (he injured his shoulder early in the season), Garcia was 2-for-4 with one RBI on Saturday against the Blue Jays, and on Sunday he was 1-for-3 with one run and a walk.
When he was first injured he was expected to miss the entire remainder of the regular season.
Those are good numbers since he hasn’t seen MLB pitching since he was injured in the eighth game of the season. I can’t wait to see how much he improves as the season still has little over a month remaining.
Since he’s healthy, I hope he can get in all the work he possibly can before the ’14 season comes to a close, and it can only help him get better for what could be a productive ’15 for not only him, but hopefully the White Sox (if they make some major moves with their pitching).
That is my focus … seeing how this team can get prepared for the ’15 season, because that is the year when the positive results can hopefully start showing up in the standings. It all will depend on how much the front office will be able to fix the pitching situation, both starters and the bullpen.
Now the White Sox must get ready for a home series with the Baltimore Orioles. Here are the pitching matchups for the series, with the White Sox pitchers listed first:
• Monday, Aug. 18: Chris Sale (10-2, 2.01 ERA) vs. Bud Norris (10-7, 3.75 ERA)
• Tuesday, Aug. 19: Jose Quintana (6-9, 3.14 ERA) vs. Chris Tillman (9-5, 3.68 ERA)
• Wednesday, Aug. 20: Hector Noesi (7-8, 4.84 ERA) vs. Wei-Yin Chen (12-4, 3.76 ERA)
I believe this could be another good series to watch with the two best pitchers of the White Sox on the mound. Hopefully they can pitch to their ERAs and the offense can help them out with some runs.
Thoughts on this upcoming series?
In other White Sox news:
• CSN Chicago asked if the White Sox have found their closer in Jake Petricka.
• Carlos Rodon could be a September call-up writes the Chicago Tribune.
• Mark Buehrle was cheered before his start at US Cellular Field wrote the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Grading on the Curve also wrote about Rodon.
• Adam Dunn has discussed a future retirement plan reports the official White Sox site.