An Unfavorable Pitching Matchup? - Lineups & Preview 4/27

The White Sox bats were stifled yesterday by luminaries such as Cesar Ramos -- today they have a much taller task ahead of them. Due to injuries, the White Sox will be giving the 29-year old Scott Carroll his major league debut. As James pointed out yesterday, Scott Carroll is really easy to root for as he seems to have a sense of humor and he has certainly put in his time as an organizational soldier. The problem is, there isn't a lot of reason to expect him to be effective.

 Over ~640 innings pitched in the minors, he doesn't seem to miss many bats - K% in the 11-13 range, or 5.4 per 9 while surrendering more than a hit an inning - and although he doesn't walk a ton of batters, he doesn't have the transcendent control he would need to survive with that kind of hittable stuff. Frankly, it's difficult to pull up much more information about him - scouting reports from 2007 when he was drafted don't seem too relevant this much later, and nobody has really paid him much attention since. 

Meanwhile, the Rays will be deploying David Price.  Add in the fact that the Rays have hit .264/.352/.415 against RHP as opposed to only .223/.298/.326 against lefties, it appears increasingly likely that the White Sox blew their shot to win the series yesterday. So, that certainly doesn't favor Chicago, but you never know what can happen in a given game - perhaps Carroll can keep the ball down and the grounders don't find holes.

Even if Carroll gives up a lot of runs, one has to expect him to be on a long leash, as Noesi and Downs each threw 30+ pitches last night, and Petricka and Putnam threw 59 and 37 pitches on Friday respectively. Even Lindstrom needed 30 pitches to get through his one inning Friday, meaning the only guys who are fresh are Cleto, Belisario, and Webb. 

Indeed, after only 25 games, the wear on the bullpen is starting to get troubling. The bullpen has already thrown 84.2 innings, 5th most in the majors, while averaging about 3.1 innings per game. The past go 'round has been particularly rough, as Erik Johnson and Charlie Leesman both failed to get out of the third inning in their starts, and nobody has gone 7 innings since Sale was forced to throw 127 pitches (thanks, Robin!) on April 17th. 

Jose Abreu has yet another shot to pass Albert Pujols' rookie home run record for the month of April.

White Sox

1. Adam Eaton - CF

2. Marcus Semien - 3B

3. Jose Abreu - DH

4. Dayan Viciedo - RF

5. Paul Konerko - 1B

6. Alexei Ramirez - SS

7. Alejandro de Aza - LF

8. Tyler Flowers - C

9. Gordon Beckham - 2B

Tampa Bay

1. Ben Zobrist - 2B

2. Desmond Jennings - CF

3. Matt Joyce - LF

4. Evan Longoria - 3B

5. James Loney - 1B

6. Wil Myers - RF

7. David Dejesus - DH

8. Yunel Escobar - SS

9. Jose Molina - C

Where to watch: CSN at 1:10pm CT.