What On Earth Is A Yohan Pino? - Game Preview & Lineups 6/19
/The White Sox's offense was impressive in a brief two-game series against the National League's best.
Facing Matt Cain and Tim Hudson, the White Sox managed 15 runs in a pair of victories against the San Francisco Giants, a welcomed rebound from last weekend's sweep at the hands of the suddenly juggernaut Kansas City Royals. (Wait, what?)
What looms ahead as the White Sox look to claw their way back to the .500 mark is an 11-game road trip that begins at 7:10 p.m. Thursday night against the Minnesota Twins and Yohan Pino, a 30-year-old Venezuelan making his Major League debut.
A cynical person would point out that it would be very White Sox to get shut down by a no-name, non-prospect making his debut a day after thrashing Hudson, so I'll instead give you a little background on Pino.
A right-hander who started his career in Minnesota and has also seen time in the organizations of Toronto, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Pino has thrown nearly 1,100 innings at the minor league level without ever getting so much as a spot promotion during his nine years of American baseball.
This season, however, he has been red-hot with Minnesota's Triple-A Rochester. His 2014 line shows a 9-1 record, 1.92 ERA and 61 strikeouts against 16 walks in 61 innings pitched. Triple-A numbers are mostly meaningless, of course, but it will be interesting to see what the not-so-youngster shows Jose Abreu & Co.
On the other side, the White Sox trot out a Jose Quintana who hopefully won't be too distracted by his native Colombia's World Cup victory over Ivory Coast earlier in the day. He's coming off of a pair of subpar outings in recent losses to the Angels and Royals, and his ERA has slowly been climbing to near 4.00.
Thursday's game kicks off an 11-game road trip for the Sox that sees them play four in Minnesota and three in Baltimore before heading to Toronto for four, where a potential Chris Sale vs. Mark Buehrle matchup looms if pitching probables hold over the next week-plus.
White Sox Lineup:
Adam Eaton – CF
Gordon Beckham – 2B
Conor Gillaspie – 3B
Jose Abreu – 1B
Adam Dunn – DH
Alexei Ramirez – SS
Dayan Viciedo – RF
Alejandro De Aza – LF
Tyler Flowers – C
Jose Quintana – SP
Minnesota Twins Lineup:
Danny Santana – SS
Brian Dozier – 2B
Joe Mauer – 1B
Josh Willingham – LF
Kendrys Morales – DH
Kurt Suzuki – C
Chris Parmelee – RF
Eduardo Escobar – 3B
Sam Fuld – CF
Yohan Pino – SP
Where to Watch: Today’s game will be broadcast on CSN. 7:10 p.m. Central start time.
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