Chicago White Sox: First place showdown with the Twins

The Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins are set to face off for first place.

The Chicago White Sox have been one of the hottest teams in baseball as of late and after taking care of business against the Royals, they have their sights set on the Minnesota Twins. This will be the White Sox’ second series against their American League Central rival. Minnesota took the first series 2-1 against Chicago to open the year.

The AL Central has a great three-team race currently with the Sox and Indians tied for first and the Twins 1.5 games behind. While the South Siders have looked great this year, some people have tried to discredit them for beating up on bad teams. This honestly has been true as most of their wins have come against pretty bad teams.

Taking a series against the Twins can go a long way in proving the doubters wrong. When these two teams faced off in the beginning of the year, the Twins dominated two of those games. However, the White Sox seem like a different team from the one that started the year.

The team from the last few weeks looks like a team that is contending for a World Serie and they look like they belong. At the start of the year, Nick Madrigal wasn’t even on the team yet. We were unsure of how the bullpen would be but guys like Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer, and Matt Foster look they are legit pieces for the pen.

In that first series, White Sox ace Lucas Giolito got roughed up pretty hard Opening Day. Giolito couldn’t get out of the third inning as he gave up seven earned runs on six hits. After the slow start, Giolito has looked like his 2019 self. Coming hot off of a no-hitter as well as looking locked in his last several starts, he will be looking to rectify that first start.

The other White Sox pitchers for the series will be the same as last time. Dallas Keuchel and Reynaldo Lopez will get the starts for the Sox. Keuchel actually picked up the Sox first win of the season in his last start against the Twins and has been a model of consistency ever since. Lopez, unfortunately, didn’t make it out of the first inning with a shoulder injury and hasn’t looked good all season. As stated above, the Sox can really put themselves on the map with a big win in what will be the most important series so far in this sprint of a season.