David Troy
Videos by OutKick
Guardians vs. White Sox, 8:10 ET
I was able to have a winning day in the MLB yesterday with two wins in the Cubs vs. White Sox series finale. The Blue Jays trounced the Dodgers which was an embarrassment for me because I expected the Dodgers to win the game, but the Cubs saved the day as they were able to win the first five and full game. The Cubs start a series against the Cardinals today, and the White Sox start a series against their division rival, the Guardians.
The Guardians are coming to Chicago at the best possible time. They can kick the White Sox while they are down. I’ve owned this loss all season: the White Sox are terrible. I thought they would be good. Honestly, I was thinking that the White Sox would respond to the new manager and the talent on their roster would come through. Either the team hates playing with each other, or the talent just isn’t as good as advertised. I suppose it could be both, of course. Counting the number for games the White Sox have won in July, you won’t need more than one hand. They are just 5-14 this month. Somehow they took two games from the best team in baseball, the Braves. The Guardians are in town for a four-game series. Oddly enough, the White Sox are leading the season series 4-2. Cleveland has been playing decent enough baseball overall and are .500 now, sitting just a few games back of the Twins. I do think they will eventually catch the Twins because their pitching staff is better than the Minnesota. The hitting is and always has been the cause of concern for me.
On the mound today we get a pretty interesting matchup. We have two young right-handers taking the mound with Tanner Bibee on one side with a 6-2 record and 3.04 ERA. On the other side, we have a Cy Young finalist from last year, Dylan Cease with a 4-3 record and 4.04 ERA. Bibee has been a lot worse on the road this season with a 4.38 ERA over seven starts, compared to his home starts that has a sub-2 ERA. July has been solid with three earned runs over 23.2 innings. He hasn’t faced the White Sox in his young career. Cease has only really had one good month this season. In June, he allowed seven earned runs over 28.2 innings. In July, he has already allowed 10 earned runs over 22.1 innings. He has posted back-to-back starts allowing just one earned run on three hits in both games. Guardians hitters are actually pretty successful against Cease in their careers, he has allowed 29 hits, including 12 extra-base hits, in 107 at-bats. He has posted two quality starts against the Guardians this season with the White Sox going 1-1 in his starts.
I’m taking the under here one again. The White Sox have been giving up runs at an alarming rate, but I do think Cease is a good enough pitcher that he can once again post a quality start. The White Sox offense is pretty uninvested in the team right now so Bibee, a pitcher they haven’t seen before, should be able to navigate the lineup without much trouble. Under 8.5 is the way to go in this one.
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