The White Sox have a big series with the Texas Rangers

The Chicago White Sox are hoping that their winning ways continue as they travel to Texas to take on the Texas Rangers in a four-game series starting this evening.

The White Sox are nipping at the heels of the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians and a strong push by the Sox. Along with a few losses by their two division rivals, they might just launch themselves into first place.

At this point, anything is possible and the White Sox just need to turn it up and win some games. They are facing a Rangers team that is 46-58 right now and kind of streaky.

They are an “okay” team but the White Sox are better (at least on paper) and need to prove in this series that they are better.

The four-game series will stretch from Thursday to Sunday and leaves the Sox with an opportunity to push their way into the AL Central lead as long as the Twins cooperate.

The first match-up of the series will feature White Sox starter Johnny Cueto going up against Rangers newly minted starter Cole Ragans. Ragans has not yet pitched in the Major Leagues so the White Sox should have the advantage here.

Of course, they cannot allow him to have a breakout first game in the Major Leagues so the White Sox need to be playing their best ball tonight.

Cueto comes into this contest with a record of 4-4 and an ERA of 2.86. He has struck out 60 batters so far this season. He’s been an amazing pitcher during his time in Chicago and has kept this team in games, for the most part.

He’s been able to stay in the ballgame for an extended period of time and the Sox have to love that. He helps save the bullpen.

The advantage goes to Cueto. I think although the Sox have usually struggled out of the gate in their series openers they win this one. We will see if they can start this series off with a bang.

Friday night’s game will see the American League newly minted Pitcher of the Month for July, Dylan Cease take on Glenn Otto. Cease is electric, reliable, and needs to be considered the best pitcher in the American League.

He enters the game with a record of 11 – 4, an ERA of 2.01, and a whopping 161 strikeouts. Otto heads into the contest with a record of 4 – 7 and a 5.50 ERA. He has just 57 strikeouts this season.

The advantage here clearly goes to Cease. This should easily be a White Sox win that allows them to continue gaining much-needed momentum heading into the rest of the series.

The Chicago White Sox needs to go into the weekend with some momentum.

The game on Saturday will see White Sox starter Michael Kopech take on Rangers starter Dan Dunning. Kopech’s last outing was solid and continues to get better after the knee injury he suffered several weeks ago.

Once again, the Sox have the advantage in this pitching match-up as Kopech is a better pitcher than Dunning is. Michael is entering the contest with a record of 4 – 7 with an ERA of 3.12. His strikeout total stands at 81.

Dunning comes in with a record of 1-6 and a 4.30 ERA. He has managed to strike out 93 batters so he is doing something right there.

I think that this will be the most interesting game of the series as far as pitching goes. These two pitchers could put up similar numbers and whoever wins will have to rely on their offense to get them through and earn them a victory.

If the White Sox bats are hot they will win this game and win their third in a row against the Rangers.

The final game of this series will take place afternoon on Sunday. The last game will see starting pitcher Lucas Giolito go up against Spencer Howard.

Giolito has had his ups and downs this season so he will have to be “on” in order for the Sox to win. This game is probably going to be the most difficult for the White Sox.

Giolito will head into this game with a record of 7 – 6 along with an ERA of 5.06 and 115 strikeouts. His opponent enters with a record of 2 – 3 and an ERA of 6.82. He has just 29 strikeouts.

On paper, it looks like Giolito is the clear favorite but he has been unpredictable this season. You just never know which Giolito you are going to get when he heads to the mound.

This game will be a close and difficult one and if the Sox must lose one game in this series, it will be this one. The White Sox will have so much positive momentum coming into Sunday’s game that they will blow past the Rangers and earn their fourth straight victory.

The White Sox should earn at least a 3-1 record in their four-game series against the Rangers. This will give them a lot of momentum and may even get them into first place in the AL Central.

The time for the Sox to get hot is now and if they do, they will find themselves in much better shape to contend for the AL Central lead.

This is the biggest series of the season to date for the situation that the White Sox are currently in. Winning this series would put them in a much better position and would cement themselves as true contenders.