MLB Series Preview: Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Indians
After being picked to win the AL Central, the Cleveland Indians host their final home series of what has been a disappointing season against Ozzie Guillen and the Chicago White Sox.
Oh, to be in Cleveland now that autumn has arrived.
More on the weather in a bit. First up is a scathing intro for a couple of teams that underachieved in 2009, the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. Back in the preseason it was the Indians getting the nod as the favorites in the AL Central, going off at +205 in early March at The Greek. Cleveland was picked to battle the Tigers for the ’09 division title; instead they’re battling the Royals for last place in the ALC.
The club started the season with a five-game losing streak and come into this series off a three-game sweep of the lowly Orioles that stopped an 11-game skid to leave the Tribe at 64-90 heading into tonight’s series opener with the Pale Hose.
The White Sox haven’t underachieved as much as the Indians, though that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. Picked to finish third or fourth in the division, Ozzie Guillen’s bunch has third place nailed down and was only recently mathematically eliminated from the postseason. Still, it’s been anything but the campaign Chicago hoped for when the 2009 slate got underway.
Even though this series means squat in the grand scheme of things, it still has the potential to be a good three-game set. The two teams have been very closely matched for a few seasons with the ChiSox 8-7 so far in ‘09, including 4-2 in Cleveland. Since the start of the '07 season, the Indians are 12-12 on their own turf and 13-14 at Chicago.
There are also a couple of nice pitching matchups (on paper at least) for the series opener tonight and the finale on Wednesday. It begins with a battle of lefthanders, John Danks for Chicago and Aaron Laffey for Cleveland. Danks is having a decent season, with the Austin native suffering a couple of hiccups along the way and coming off a poor outing at home last Tuesday (6 IP, 7 ER, 8-6 loss to Minnesota). Believe it or not, none of his 30 starts this year have been against the Indians. In eight career starts vs. Cleveland, Danks owns a 5.32 ERA and the White Sox are 3-5.
Laffey will be making his second go against Chicago this season, the first coming on July 8 in the Windy City. After spending most of May in the bullpen and most of June on the disabled list, it was Laffey’s first start off the DL and he took the loss in a 5-1 game, tossing six and allowing four runs.
Games 2 and 3 line up this way:
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 1, Mon, Sep 28, 7:05 p.m. (ET): John Danks (15-15, 3.82) vs. Aaron Laffey (9-8, 3.93)
Game 2, Tue, Sep 29, 7:05 p.m.: Carlos Torres (3-1, 5.91) vs. Justin Masterson (1-8, 4.79)
Game 3, Wed, Sep 30, 7:05 p.m.: Jake Peavy (2-0, 2.25) vs. Fausto Carmona (9-14, 6.62)
WEATHER
Now, about the weather. Monday figures to be a mess in the greater Cleveland area. There's a 60%-70% chance of rain during the day with high winds that could see gusts topping 40 MPH out of the WSW. The wet stuff drops to a 40% chance at night with temps in the upper-50s and the winds still whipping in the 25+ range out of the WSW (out to right-center). The 40% chance of rain remains into Tuesday, then tails off just a bit during the day Wednesday though the chance of rain will diminish as the game draws near. Still some high winds on Tuesday and temps in the low-to-mid 50s for first pitch.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
After being picked to win the AL Central, the Cleveland Indians host their final home series of what has been a disappointing season against Ozzie Guillen and the Chicago White Sox.
Oh, to be in Cleveland now that autumn has arrived.
More on the weather in a bit. First up is a scathing intro for a couple of teams that underachieved in 2009, the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox. Back in the preseason it was the Indians getting the nod as the favorites in the AL Central, going off at +205 in early March at The Greek. Cleveland was picked to battle the Tigers for the ’09 division title; instead they’re battling the Royals for last place in the ALC.
The club started the season with a five-game losing streak and come into this series off a three-game sweep of the lowly Orioles that stopped an 11-game skid to leave the Tribe at 64-90 heading into tonight’s series opener with the Pale Hose.
The White Sox haven’t underachieved as much as the Indians, though that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement. Picked to finish third or fourth in the division, Ozzie Guillen’s bunch has third place nailed down and was only recently mathematically eliminated from the postseason. Still, it’s been anything but the campaign Chicago hoped for when the 2009 slate got underway.
Even though this series means squat in the grand scheme of things, it still has the potential to be a good three-game set. The two teams have been very closely matched for a few seasons with the ChiSox 8-7 so far in ‘09, including 4-2 in Cleveland. Since the start of the '07 season, the Indians are 12-12 on their own turf and 13-14 at Chicago.
There are also a couple of nice pitching matchups (on paper at least) for the series opener tonight and the finale on Wednesday. It begins with a battle of lefthanders, John Danks for Chicago and Aaron Laffey for Cleveland. Danks is having a decent season, with the Austin native suffering a couple of hiccups along the way and coming off a poor outing at home last Tuesday (6 IP, 7 ER, 8-6 loss to Minnesota). Believe it or not, none of his 30 starts this year have been against the Indians. In eight career starts vs. Cleveland, Danks owns a 5.32 ERA and the White Sox are 3-5.
Laffey will be making his second go against Chicago this season, the first coming on July 8 in the Windy City. After spending most of May in the bullpen and most of June on the disabled list, it was Laffey’s first start off the DL and he took the loss in a 5-1 game, tossing six and allowing four runs.
Games 2 and 3 line up this way:
- Tuesday is a rematch of a pitching matchup on Aug 8 in Chicago with Carlos Torres going to the White Sox against Cleveland's Justin Masterson. Neither figured in the decision with Peres working 3.1 and allowing four runs, along with six walks, and Masterson, making his first start for the Tribe, working four frames and giving up a run on four hits.
- If I told you back in April that Jake Peavy and Fausto Carmona were going to meet this year, your first thought probably would've been, "Really?! The Padres and Indians made it to the World Series?" Nope, they're just drawing the assignment in this series finale. Peavy has two career starts vs. the Indians (a win and a loss in 2003 and 2005) while this is Carmona's first time to face Chicago this season.
STARTING PITCHERS
Game 1, Mon, Sep 28, 7:05 p.m. (ET): John Danks (15-15, 3.82) vs. Aaron Laffey (9-8, 3.93)
Game 2, Tue, Sep 29, 7:05 p.m.: Carlos Torres (3-1, 5.91) vs. Justin Masterson (1-8, 4.79)
Game 3, Wed, Sep 30, 7:05 p.m.: Jake Peavy (2-0, 2.25) vs. Fausto Carmona (9-14, 6.62)
WEATHER
Now, about the weather. Monday figures to be a mess in the greater Cleveland area. There's a 60%-70% chance of rain during the day with high winds that could see gusts topping 40 MPH out of the WSW. The wet stuff drops to a 40% chance at night with temps in the upper-50s and the winds still whipping in the 25+ range out of the WSW (out to right-center). The 40% chance of rain remains into Tuesday, then tails off just a bit during the day Wednesday though the chance of rain will diminish as the game draws near. Still some high winds on Tuesday and temps in the low-to-mid 50s for first pitch.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they start games. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com and ESPN.com and of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!