A trip to New York sounds nice! The White Sox will play their first game at Citi Field, and take on a Mets team that isn’t given much of a shot in a division containing both the Braves and the Nationals. The Mets are quietly holding their own, however, landing somewhere near league average in most offensive categories. On the other side of the ball, they’ve got a young guy by the name of Matt Harvey going every 5 days, and he’s generating a lot of buzz.
Harvey has made six starts this year and given up just 1 run in all but two of those, in which he allowed 0 and 3. It’s safe to say he’s off to a good start. His performance has also been good enough for the Mets to have gone 5-1 in games that he’s started, the loss coming in a 15 inning affair with the Marlins, a decision that Harvey obviously did not factor into. Metropolitan’s fans are in love with his strikeout rate, 30% so far this year, good for over 10 k’s per 9 innings. It’s ok to be skeptical, in a short season, there stands a chance that he’s a small sample mirage. If he’s the really the real deal, he should be able to strike out roughly 27 White Sox. So let’s all watch and see.
Hector Santiago is making his first 2013 start with any sort of advance notice. He did start in Texas last week after Jake Peavy was scratched with back issues. He performed especially admirably considering the situation. In 5.1 innings he allowed just a pair of hits to go with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. Citi Field shot from 28th in the league for allowing HRs to 12th after moving the fences in. A rather dramatic shift, and even after allowing for normal fluctuation rates due to team performance, it’s clear that Citi is not the same park it was as it pertains to helping pitchers keep the ball in play. Hector will have to keep his control in check and minimize the damage should any Mets hitters happen to take advantage of the new dimensions.
On a note unrelated to tonight’s contest, the White Sox have claimed Mike McDade off of waivers from the Indians to fill a roster spot vacated by Gavin Floyd’s transfer to the 60-Day DL.
Today’s Lineup:
1.De Aza – LF
2.Keppinger – 2B
3.Rios – RF
4.Dunn – 1B
5.Gillaspie – 3B
6.Alexei – SS
7.Flowers – C
8.Wise – CF
9.Santiago – P
Santiago did see a couple pitches in Washington and lined out to right. His contact rate is tied for the highest in the league…
New York Mets Lineup:
1.Ruben Tejada – SS
2.Daniel Murphy – 2B
3.David Wright – 3B
4.John Buck – C
5.Lucas Duda – LF
6.Andrew Brown – RF
7.Ike Davis – 1B
8.Juan Lagares – CF
Where to Watch
Today’s White Sox game can be watched on CSN+ for the Chicago area and on SNY in the New York metro. 6:10 Central start time.