White Sox Begin Important Week of Action Against Divisional Foes
White Sox to play next seven games against divisional opponents. If they’re going to do well in the division, they will need to win key games in the division.
The Chicago White Sox are coming off a brief three-game road trip where they won their first series of the year with two wins over the New York Yankees. After enduring a brutal five-game losing streak, the Sox will enter Monday night’s contest against the Kansas City Royals looking for positive momentum.
With the White Sox current record of 5-9, they will need to get off to a good start this week as they have their next seven games against AL Central division opponents. As of Monday, the Sox have a 2-3 record against divisional opponents this season. They lost their first series of the year to the Royals and split two games with the Cleveland Indians.
On Monday night, the White Sox will begin a brief three-game homestand with a series against the Royals. They will finish the week with a four-game set on the road against the Detroit Tigers. The Sox record within the division has been rather poor over the past few seasons. Last season, the Sox had a 30-46 record in the division.
In 2017, the White Sox record within the division was 33-43. If the Sox are going to have any shot of ending this season with something close to a winning record, they will need better results against division opponents. The starting pitching appears to be turning around as the Sox rotation has produced consecutive quality starts recently with Ivan Nova and Carlos Rodon.
Starting for the Sox on Monday night will be Ervin Santana. The veteran right-handed pitcher is looking for his first win in a Sox uniform and 150th win overall in his career. He will certainly need much better results than he had in his first start of the season when he lasted just 3.2 innings. Reynaldo Lopez will start for the Sox on Tuesday night while Lucas Giolito will start the series finale on Wednesday.
Each pitcher can’t have outings this week where they can’t last more than four or five innings. The starting pitching has surprisingly become a weakness for this team and the Sox can’t afford to lose ground in the division with lackluster performances this week. A strength of the Sox team, however, has been some of the young position players.
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Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, and Eloy Jimenez have each had some stellar performances individually on offense for the Sox. Whether it was Moncada’s three-hit performance on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, or Anderson hitting his first career grand slam in the same game, or Jimenez hitting his first two career home runs this past Friday, each of these players is inspiring hope within Sox fans. Hopefully, that momentum carries over into this week for the Sox.