White Sox Conclude Road Trip With Series Against Oakland Athletics
White Sox conclude road trip with series against Oakland Athletics. The two teams are both four games below .500 entering play on Monday.
The Chicago White Sox haven’t played a game since last Thursday as their last three games were postponed due to inclement weather. The Sox were set to face the Minnesota Twins in a four-game series but ended up playing just one game.
With the Sox being idle for three days, they will get back into action Monday night against the Oakland Athletics. The Sox will be concluding their current road trip with a three-game series in Oakland. The Athletics are coming off a series loss to the Seattle Mariners where they only won one game out of three played.
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As the Sox had their last three games postponed, the pitching schedule for the starting rotation was pushed back. Reynaldo Lopez will now start for the Sox on Monday, with Miguel Gonzalez starting on Tuesday and Carson Fulmer starting on Wednesday. Each pitcher will be looking for their first victories of the season.
Lopez hasn’t pitched since April 8 but had a solid outing in his last start despite not getting any run support. Currently, Lopez leads all Sox starting pitchers with a 0.69 ERA through two starts this season. Lopez has showed improvement from his stint with the Sox last year, but could certainly use more run support from the team’s offense.
Oakland will start Daniel Mengden on Monday night. Mengden is currently 1-2 with a 6.19 ERA for the Athletics through three starts. Last season, Mengden made just seven starts for Oakland and was 3-2 with a 3.14 ERA. His first season in the Majors was 2016 but he didn’t have a good season for Oakland. That year, he finished with a 2-9 record in 14 starts with a 6.50 ERA.
The Athletics haven’t announced their starting pitcher for Tuesday’s game, but Andrew Triggs will start the series finale on Wednesday. Triggs has started three games thus far this season with a 1-0 record and 2.87 ERA. The right-handed pitcher made 12 starts for Oakland last season and compiled a 5-6 record with a 4.27 ERA.
Although Oakland has a losing record at 6-10, their offense has been solid to start this season. The Athletics are ranked fourth in the American League in team offense with a .261 batting average and 22 home runs. Oakland is led by Jed Lowrie and Matt Chapman on offense. Lowrie leads the team with a .348 batting average and 14 RBIs.
Chapman leads the Athletics with five home runs and is sporting a slash line of .333/.403/.609 through 16 games played. The 24-year-old played in just 84 games for the Athletics last season but hit 14 home runs and recored 40 RBIs. Both Lowrie and Chapman will be players the Sox will have to focus on in this series as they could give this team trouble.
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After the conclusion of this series against Oakland, the Sox will return home for a six-game homestand. They will start their homestand this Friday against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.