Here's to a Lively K-Zone on Chris Sale Day - Game Preview & Lineups 4/11
/The 14 game losing streak against the Indians is a thing of the past. As Collin mentioned in yesterday’s series/game preview, the likelihood that Cleveland could maintain the same dominance over the White Sox that they had last season was low.
In fact, a win tonight will match the Sox win total against the Indians for all of 2013. It’s like seeing a kid finally learn to tie his shoe after watching him trip over his laces every day for a year. As it turns out, a victory is a decent bet on this Spring Friday night, because hey, it’s Chris Sale Day.
The new K-Zone will be in full effect as The Condor struts to the mound to continue what is starting out as an excellent 2014 campaign. Two outings in, Sale carries a 1.76 ERA with the White Sox winning both contests. In his most recent go against the Royals, Sale went 8 innings without allowing a run, striking out 6 and walking just 1. That brings his K/BB on the year to a ridiculously unsustainable 7.00.
The Indians 9.1% walk percentage in 2013 tied them for 4th in the majors in that category, so the patience of the team is likely to eat away at that stat. Some of Sale’s worst outings in 2013 came against the Indians, so he’s exorcising some demons of his own this evening.
From the Indians end, Carlos Carrasco heads to the bump. Carrasco put together 46.2 fairly unsuccessful innings last season, his first after missing all of 2012 for Tommy John Surgery. His 2013 included a single outing against the White Sox, a game in which he gave up 6 runs in 5 1/3 innings, though the Sox still managed to drop that one. His lone start so far in 2014 wasn’t terribly successful either: 4 earned in 5 1/3 though he did strike out 7 Minnesota batters.
The offense continues to surge even with the news of a lineup that will contain no more than one Garcia for the rest of the season. Alexei Ramirez and Jose Abreu led the attack. The Southside’s eldest active Cuban is batting .421 on the young season and he even has a pair of homeruns to accompany that. Abreu had a pair of homeruns just last night, bringing his total to four. With the previous two also coming on the same night he’s starting a bit of a tradition.
If his next two homeruns come in the same game, I’m calling him Joey two-times. Hey maybe he’ll do this all year long.
Today’s Lineup:
- Adam Eaton - CF
- Marcus Semien - 2B
- Conor Gillaspie - 3B
- Jose Abreu - 1B
- Adam Dunn - DH
- Dayan Viciedo - RF
- Alejandro De Aza - LF
- Alexei Ramirez - SS
- Tyler Flowers - C
Chris Sale - SP
Indians Lineup:
- Asdrubral Cabrera - SS
- Nick Swisher - 1B
- Jason Kipnis - 2B
- Carlos Santana - 3B
- Ryan Raburn - DH
- Michael Brantley - CF
- Yan Gomes - C
- Mike Aviles - LF
- Elliott Johnson - RF
Carlos Carrasco - SP
Where to Watch: Today’s game will be broadcast on WCIU Sports Time Ohio.
7:10 Central start time.
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