After cooling off the sizzling Cleveland Guardians and ending their own slide, the Chicago White Sox have a rare moment of early positivity to build on.
Following their second victory of the season, the visiting White Sox will aim to win the three-game set from the Guardians on Wednesday evening.
Chicago totaled 16 runs in its first 10 contests and five during a five-game losing streak that ended with a 7-5 victory at Cleveland on Tuesday. The White Sox scored five times in the first inning but blew that lead before Dominic Fletcher’s two-run, eighth-inning double broke a 5-5 tie.
It was the highest-scoring game of the young season for the White Sox, who entered Tuesday batting .190 after managing just four hits in a 4-0 loss to Cleveland on Monday. However, they pounded out 12 hits on Tuesday, with Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee each recording two hits with an RBI to help end the Guardians’ five-game winning streak.
“Guys got to step up, guys got to play their game and continue to play hard and do things right,” Fletcher told NBC Sports Chicago.
Fletcher, in his second major league season and first with Chicago, is 5-for-11 with three doubles and three RBIs over the last five games.
Meanwhile, the Guardians, who allowed five runs total in their previous five contests, yielded their highest run output of the season on Tuesday. However, Cleveland star Jose Ramirez had three hits and an RBI.
Ramirez is batting .370 (10-for-27) with six RBIs over the last six games after hitting .208 (5-for-24) with four RBIs in the first five contests.
Tanner Bibee (1-0, 3.86 ERA) is slated to take the mound for Cleveland on Wednesday, looking to build on a solid second start of the season. The right-hander yielded three runs, six hits and five walks in four innings at Oakland on March 30, but he allowed only a fifth-inning solo homer while striking out nine without a walk in 5 1/3 innings during the Guardians’ 4-2 victory at Minnesota on Thursday.
“I think I was just going into (the second start) with a little chip on my shoulder,” Bibee said. “(The first) start was not where I wanted to be.”
Bibee lasted 6 2/3 innings in his only previous start against the White Sox, last July. He gave up three runs and two homers while striking out six and walking two.
Chicago is expected to counter on Wednesday with Erick Fedde (0-0, 2.79 ERA), who has been one of the few individual bright spots amid the club’s dismal start.
After pitching in South Korea’s KBO League last season, the right-hander has allowed three runs, 11 hits and three walks while striking out 11 over 9 2/3 innings during his two 2024 starts, against the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.
The White Sox are likely to be without third baseman Yoan Moncada, who sustained an adductor strain while running out a second-inning ground ball on Tuesday.
Moncada, who is batting .282, joins prominent Chicago contributors Eloy Jimenez (adductor) and Luis Robert Jr. (hip flexor) in dealing with early season injuries.
–Field Level Media