White Sox Face Uphill Battle on Upcoming Road Trip
White Sox haven’t had much success on the road this season as the team embarks on 10-game road trip starting Tuesday night. The White Sox will face AL Central rivals and a National League team that’s in the hunt for the postseason.
The White Sox, losers of five series after the All-Star break will start a 10-game road odyssey Tuesday night in Kansas City. The White Sox will battle for sole possession of third place in the AL Central as the face the Royals. With both teams continuing to fade out of contention, this series won’t be as intense as previous series this season.
After enduring one of the worst road series in recent memory the last time these two teams met, the White Sox still haven’t recovered from falling out of first place in the division. The White Sox were 27-21 when they entered their series with the Royals on May 27. During that series, the White Sox saw late leads lost in each game, none bigger than their ninth inning collapse on May 28 when they were leading 7-1.
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Since that series ended, the White Sox record is now 53-58 and they’re on the verge of finishing their fourth consecutive season under .500. The White Sox road record is 24-32, and they will face an uphill battle in their hopes of getting back to .500. Chris Sale will be on the mound in the team’s series opener with the Royals on Tuesday night. After the team’s series against the Royals, the White Sox will travel to Miami to face the Marlins.
The Marlins are 59-53 as of Tuesday and are tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the second wild card spot in the National League. Although the Marlins are 7.5 games behind the Washington Nationals in the NL East, they still have a shot at reaching the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in 2003.
Miami is led by a pitching staff consisting of Jose Fernandez, Adam Conley and Tom Koehler. On offense, the Marlins are led by J.T. Realmuto, Martin Prado, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna. Giancarlo Stanton who beat out Todd Frazier in the home derby in July, has been struggling offensively this season with a batting average at .241, he has 24 home runs. He’s still a threat to hit a monster home run and if James Shields pitches over the weekend, you can expect Stanton to go deep off the struggling pitcher.
The White Sox will conclude their 10 game road trip against the Cleveland Indians starting August 16. With the White Sox currently 10 games behind the Indians, they could be further behind by the time they start their series. For the season, the White Sox are 2-7 against the Indians and have won just one game at Progressive Field this year.
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To make matters worse for the White Sox road trip, they haven’t won a series on the road since the beginning of July when they took two out of three games from the Houston Astros. The White Sox will certainly need better results on their road trip, but an improbable series victory or two could keep the team from sliding further into obscurity this season.