White Sox have a critical series with the Tigers this week

The Chicago White Sox have been playing baseball like a yo-yo lately. Up and down is their mantra. They just got done with a mostly down series against the Minnesota Twins but they did end it on a high note.

Now, we will see if the Sox are able to take that bit of momentum into their upcoming four-game series with the Detroit Tigers in hopes that they can at least split the series and keep pace with the Twins.

The Tigers have been playing decent baseball as of late and don’t appear to be the pushover that they were earlier in the season. The White Sox will have their hands a little full with these Tigers but they should be able to get the upper hand.

They just have to turn their offense on, make sure that their pitching is sound, and not make the mistakes that they have been making. If they can do that, they can beat the Tigers and win the series.

There are four games in this series starting on Monday and they go through Sunday afternoon. The following is a look at the known pitching match-ups that each game has and who just might win that match-up.

The Chicago White Sox are getting ready for a very important series this week.

Tiger King Dylan Cease will take the mound for the first game of the series against Detroit. Cease hasn’t lost a game against the Tigers in his career and White Sox fans will hope that continues on Thursday night. Detroit is going to go with Beau Brieske.

Brieske, a right-handed pitcher, has a record of 1-6, 46 strikeouts, and an ERA of 4.54. Compare that to Ceases’ 7-3 record with a 2.51 ERA and 125 strikeouts and it would appear that this is a mismatch.

It looks like it will be. Expect Cease to do well pitching and as long as the White Sox offense shows up, they should win this game pretty easily. Hopefully, Cease can continue his winning ways against the Tigers and give the White Sox their second win in as many games.

Friday night’s game will feature right-handed pitcher Lucas Giolito going up against left-handed Tarik Skubal. Giolito will come into this game with a record of 5-4, 89 strikeouts, and a 4,90 ERA while Skubal boasts a record of 5-7, 90 strikeouts, and an ERA of 4.06. This matchup, at least on paper, appears to be fairly even.

Giolito had been playing some rough baseball but appears to have picked himself back up and is playing much better. If he can continue moving forward positively, he will get the Sox a win (of course as long as the offense can perform and get some runs). Look for the White Sox to win this game giving them their third win in a row and second against the Tigers.

The third game of the series, on Saturday, will put the up-and-coming White Sox pitcher Johnny Cueto against the Tigers Garrett Hill. Cueto has been decent lately earning a 2-4 record with a 3.30 ERA and 48 strikeouts.

Hill hasn’t pitched that much yet this year and has a 1-0 record, a 1.50 ERA, and three strikeouts. Not knowing that much about Hill makes it difficult to predict which pitcher has the advantage.

Cueto should have a fine game and could help the Sox to a victory. However, it appears as if the offense goes into hiding whenever Cueto pitches so hopefully the offense shows up.

The final game of the series on Sunday afternoon will have right-hander Michael Kopech on the mound going up against Drew Hill. Kopech struggled a bit in his last outing against the Twins so hopefully, he will be able to get back to pitching good baseball.

He comes into this game with a record of 2-6, an ERA of 3.34, and 68 strikeouts. Hutchinson, a right-handed pitcher, will start Sunday with a 1-4 record, 19 strikeouts, and an ERA of 4.30. Hutchinson doesn’t have the stats that Kopech does but if the White Sox can’t hit, that will make things easy for him.

This is another tough one to predict because you don’t know which Kopech is going to show up. If the “good” one does, then the Sox will likely win this game with offense. If he struggles, the team could struggle and lose this one.

The White Sox realistically could win all four games of this series if their offense shows up to play. The pitching should be the least of their worries as they just need the bats to show up and start hitting.

If that happens, it could be an easy four-game sweep which would be huge for this team in keeping pace with the leaders in the AL Central. A split of the series wouldn’t be bad but a sweep would be grand.