White Sox vs. Rangers, Who Have That One Guy At Catcher – Lineups 4/30
You will be kept up to date on the man that Tyler Flowers has replaced as catcher, trust me. The beat writers, the television and radio announcers, the Twitter folks, they’ll express the emptiness in their hearts, or extoll Flowers’ virtues, or even lament his shortcomings. There will be film clips, sound bites, and stories of favorite moments. That will all be there for the entire series, so I’m going to do you a solid and not contribute to the overload. You’re not overloaded yet, so perhaps you find this step unnecessary, but later on you’ll thank me.
Yu Darvish has never played for the White Sox, but he has faced them once and it didn’t go terribly well for him. He allowed 6 runs in 6.1 innings including a 2-run HR to Kevin Youkilis. He’s matched that 6 runs this season, but in 5 starts. That’s 32.2 innings and 6 runs. Homeruns? None. He also leads the league with a ridiculous 39.8% strikeout rate and is a solid bet to exceed the 40% mark by evening’s end. The point is that the White Sox have a rough road ahead of them tonight as they attempt to normalize some of Darvish’s ridiculous 2013 stats.
Jose Quintana continues to impress, having allowed just 2 runs over his last three starts. Two of those starts came against the Indians, who rank at the top of the majors offensively enabling him to shake the “weak competition excuse and battle sample size exclusively. In the first month of the season, he’s the team ace. Texas is nobody’s dream place to pitch and puts a premium on Quintana keeping the ball down and keeping the Rangers from sending souvenirs to fans in the bleachers.
Today’s Lineup:
1.De Aza – LF
2.Greene – 2B
3.Rios – RF
4.Dunn – 1B
5.Konerko – DH
6.Conor Gillaspie – 3B
7.Alexei – SS
8.Gimenez – C
9.Danks DeWayne Wise* – CF
*Wise inserted in place of Danks, who has a sore knee.
Texas Rangers Lineup:
1.Ian Kinsler – 2B
2.Elvis Andrus – SS
3.Lance Berkman – DH
4.Adrian Beltre – 3B
5.Nelson Cruz – RF
6.Jeff Baker – LF
7.Geovany Soto – C
8.Mitch Moreland – 1B
9.Craig Gentry – CF
Neither Flowers nor you-know-who are in the lineup for this one, but I’m willing to bet that doesn’t slow down the broadcast mentions by a whole lot.
Where to Watch
Today’s White Sox game will be shown on CSN+ for the Chicago area and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest for the DFW area. 7:05 Central start time.