The Chicago White Sox will begin a new season on Thursday afternoon as they face the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field on the Southside of Chicago. Even though it appears it’s going to be a slow and slippery season for the White Sox, fans are surely ready for some baseball. We have been waiting a long time for opening day and it’s finally here.
How exciting!
The Chicago White Sox are poised to have a difficult season according to many experts. But, it’s entirely possible that they could surprise some folks. The way to do that is to play good, clean baseball right out of the gate.
They have a chance to do that against the Tigers who aren’t quite as well put together as the Minnesota Twins or Cleveland Guardians. But the Tigers are set up to surprise some folks this season and could push the White Sox further down toward the bottom of the AL Central.
The Tigers will put Tarik Skubal on the mound against Chicago’s Garrett Crochet. Not too many people thought that Crochet would be in the position that he’s in right now but it was meant to be. Now, we will see just how well Crochet can do against a Tigers lineup that will include such hitters as Spencer Torkelson and whomever else may step up and surprise us this year.
The White Sox spot a somewhat similar lineup to last year except for some guys in the infield. Paul DeJong and Nicky Lopez will help shore up the middle of the defense and contribute at the plate. The catcher position got a bit of an overhaul with Martin Maldonado and Max Stassi (who will find himself on IR to start the season) coming aboard to catch the ball. First and third base will remain the same as will most of the outfield.
It’s a new-look team with some of the old sprinkled in.
So how do the White Sox stack up against the Tigers? It’s Opening Day so both teams have fresh starts and we don’t know what to expect out of them. We can’t go by their spring training records, those don’t mean anything. Some think that starting this season at home gives the White Sox a little bit of an edge over the Tigers. One might think that the somewhat “new look” White Sox will be all ready to go. Crochet may pitch a masterpiece and his defense will hold up their end of the bargain.
This is tough to predict. If it were the White Sox versus the Twins or the Guardians one would think that the White Sox would lose the series. These are the Tigers and I think that they have a lot to prove before they are a lot better than the White Sox.
This looks like an evenly matched series to start the season. Right now, it looks like the White Sox just might win this series, 2–1, and start the season off well. However, once they start meeting the bigger and more powerful teams, the true White Sox will appear.
The true White Sox may not be a team that White Sox fans like.