Gio Gonzalez, The One That Got Away – Lineups 4/9
We’ve seen this guy before, no? Yes, more than once. Gio Gonzalez has reason to walk to the mound with confidence tonight. Not only does his team believe in his abilities, so do the White Sox. They ought to since they drafted him in the first round of the 2004 draft. Need exceeded his potential at some point, and he was sent off to Philadelphia in a package that brought back Jim Thome following the 2005 season. A year later, the White Sox had their eye on Gavin Floyd and were able to get Gio thrown in on a deal that sent Freddy Garcia to the Phillies. Poor guy only got one more minor league season in the Sox system before they shipped him to Oakland along with a pair of other minor leaguers for Nick Swisher. Yadda yadda yadda, Gonzalez is in Washington now, doing well, getting ready to face the White Sox as the Nationals try to repeat as champions of the National League East.
Jake Peavy faced the Nationals the last time the White Sox stopped by Nationals Park and he got the victory in a 1-0 game by going the distance and allowing just 3 hits. Maybe the Southsiders can muster up a bit more run support for the bulldog this go-round.
For all the early complaints of the White Sox and their homerun based offense, they only rank third in the majors for percentage of runs scored via long ball. Directly ahead of them in second place are the Nationals. Gio Gonzalez is actually a part of that “problem”, having hit one out in his last start and bringing his career total of 2 even with Peavy’s. Speaking of pitcher’s hitting, Peavy will be wielding the bat today, relegating an everyday player to the bench for use later in the game. Adam Dunn will sit for tonight but it will be interesting to see how Robin chooses to handle the non-DH situations this season. With Viciedo’s history against right hander’s Dunn in left is not an impossibility when a RHP is on the mound. Gio represents the first lefty starter to face the White Sox in 2013, but it remains a test since he brings a reverse split, getting the best of right handed hitting more often than the southpaws.
Today’s Lineup:
1.De Aza – CF
2.Keppinger – 3B
3.Rios – RF
4.Konerko – 1B
5.Dayan – LF
6.Alexei – SS
7.Flowers – C
8.Gordo – 2B
9.Peavy – P
Jeff Keppinger will try to start anew and forget that his first week on the White Sox ever happened. He has the luxury of enacting this reset on the road without the fans reminding him that he’s been terrible so far.
Washington Nationals Lineup:
1.Denard Span – CF
2.Jayson Werth – RF
3.Bryce Harper – LF
4.Ryan Zimmerman – 3B
5.Adam LaRoche – 1B
6.Ian Desmond – SS
7.Danny Espinosa – 2B
8.Wilson Ramos – C
9.Gio Gonzalez – P
Where to Watch
Game available on WCIU for the Chicago area and will be broadcast on MASN for the DC market. Out of market viewers can tune in on MLBNetwork. 6:05 Central start time.