Hoping For More From Danks - Game Preview & Lineups 5/24

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Adam Dunn's ninth-inning blast gave the White Sox their second straight win over the Yankees on Friday night and the team has won four of five overall to climb back to .500 once again. Saturday, the White Sox will look to climb above that mark for the first time since May 9 and it will take an improved effort from John Danks to do so in the 1:10 p.m. tilt at U.S. Cellular Field.

Danks' results thus far in 2014 have left much to be desired and in Sunday's loss to Houston he put together another miserable outing, giving up 7 ER and 10 H over 4.2 innings in a 8-2 defeat.

If there's any reason for optimism regarding Danks, its that his K:BB has started trending in the right direction of late. After striking out just 21 compared to 20 walks through his first six starts of the season, he's struck out 20 and walked just six combined in his last three outings. In Sunday's loss to the Astros, he generated 18 swinging strikes, which is a season-high. But that was also against the worst team in baseball and he still allowed seven earned runs, so, yeah.

Toeing the rubber for the Yankees will be 26-year-old lefty Vidal Nuno. He'll be making his sixth start of the season for New York and sports a 5.82 ERA and 26:16 strikeout to walk ratio in 34 innings pitched.

Nuno features a fastball-slider combination and he throws one of those two pitches more than half of the time, with the fastball averaging about 89 mph and the slider dropping down to 82. He also occasionally mixes in a sinker, curveball and changeup.

Leury Garcia will start in left field for the White Sox on Saturday with Alejandro De Aza getting the day off, meaning the utility man is truly living up to that phrase, as it will be the seventh different position he's played for the White Sox this season (including his inning at pitcher against the Red Sox.

White Sox Lineup:

  1. Adam Eaton - CF
  2. Gordon Beckham - 2B
  3. Dayan Viciedo - RF
  4. Adam Dunn - 1B
  5. Alexei Ramirez - SS
  6. Paul Konerko - DH
  7. Marcus Semien - 3B
  8. Adrian Nieto - C
  9. Leury Garcia - LF

John Danks - SP

New York Yankees Lineup:

  1. Brett Gardner - LF
  2. Derek Jeter - SS
  3. Jacoby Ellsbury - CF
  4. Mark Teixeira - 1B
  5. Alfonso Soriano - DH
  6. Yangervis Solarte - 3B
  7. Ichiro Suzuki - RF
  8. J.R. Murphy - C
  9. Brendan Ryan - 2B

Vidal Nuno - SP

Where to Watch: 1:10 p.m. CT on CSN Chicago and the YES Network

 

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