The Oakland Athletics announced their Game 1 lineup before the White Sox announced their postseason roster, and while the White Sox are no strangers to waiting until the last possible moment to reveal player assignments, at least they had a distinct reason for the delay.
They waited until the last possible moment to decide that Eloy Jiménez couldn’t start.
Leury García is off the injured list, and he’ll be thrown immediately into the fire, starting in left field in Jiménez’s place against Jesus Luzardo as they try to reinforce their reputation against left-handed starters. Vinnie Duber relayed Rick Renteria’s quote:
“Hopefully” packs a lot of mystery. Is he hopeful that Jiménez is available, that he’ll be needed for a big pinch-hit at-bat, or can be a go-to guy who delivers that big pinch hit? I’m guessing more along the lines of the latter.
Left field is the only real surprise in the lineup. Renteria’s playing all better players elsewhere. Renteria is deploying both catchers — James McCann behind the plate, Yasmani Grandal at DH — and the White Sox added Zack Collins added to the postseason roster to encourage him further. Also, Adam Engel is getting the start in right field over Nomar Mazara, which is de rigeur against lefties. When Chris Bassitt starts Game 2, that’ll be more indicative of which outfielder he wants.
As for the 28-man roster, García and Collins are the notable additions, and the White Sox made room by leaving off Gio González (who’s injured) and Reynaldo López (who isn’t). The White Sox made room for García by designating Alex McRae for assignment.
WILD CARD SERIES ROSTER
STARTING PITCHERS
- Lucas Giolito
- Dallas Keuchel
- Dylan Cease
- Dane Dunning
RELIEF PITCHERS
- Aaron Bummer
- Alex Colomé
- Jimmy Cordero
- Garrett Crochet
- Matt Foster
- Jace Fry
- Codi Heuer
- Evan Marshall
- Carlos Rodón
CATCHERS
- Yasmani Grandal
- James McCann
- Zack Collins
INFIELDERS
- José Abreu
- Tim Anderson
- Leury García
- Nick Madrigal
- Yoán Moncada
- Yolmer Sánchez
OUTFIELDERS
- Jarrod Dyson
- Adam Engel
- Eloy Jiménez
- Nomar Mazara
- Luis Robert
DH
- Edwin Encarnación
* * * * * * * * *
As for the A’s, they will benefit from the return of former White Sox farmhand JB Wendelken, who takes the place of Jordan Weems on the roster as a righty who figures to see action against the White Sox’s mostly right-handed bats.
Otherwise, it seems like they’re dancing with who they’ve brought. The only surprises are in the starting lineup, with the A’s trying to get as many lefties toward the top of the lineup as possible.
STARTING LINEUPS
| WHITE SOX | ORDER | ATHLETICS |
|---|---|---|
| Tim Anderson, SS | 1 | Tommy La Stella, 2B |
| Yoán Moncada, 3B | 2 | Robbie Grossman, LF |
| Yasmani Grandal, DH | 3 | Marcus Semien, SS |
| José Abreu, 1B | 4 | Matt Olson, 1B |
| James McCann, C | 5 | Mark Canha, RF |
| Luis Robert, CF | 6 | Jake Lamb, 3B |
| Adam Engel, RF | 7 | Ramón Laureano, CF |
| Leury García, LF | 8 | Chad Pinder, DH |
| Nick Madrigal, 2B | 9 | Sean Murphy, C |
Pitchers: Lucas Giolito vs. Jesús Luzardo
PERTINENT: 2020 Wild Card Round Opponent Preview — Oakland Athletics
SOX MACHINE PREGAME SHOW
Josh and I will be streaming live starting at 1:30 p.m. CT.
soxmachine is on Mixlr
FYI: The previews will also be the First Pitches.
Why is the first pitch at a weird time like 2:08PM? Why not just round it up to 2:10?
As an homage to Sox shortstops who have led the majors in hitting, I’m wearing my 1942 Luke Appling jersey. Let the games begin!
Nice! I’m going Konerko with the ’05 World Series patch.
Also nice.
L Bob 88, need farmio patch still
Let’s go, Let’s Go!
Tim’s hitting again. Good first AB.
And though Moncada flied out, that was a well-hit ball.
Dang, Moncada hit that one pretty good. Wrong guy out there in CF.
Arrrggghh…I was in a long conference call… missed all the start of the game
Grandal not spooked by the big stage and maintaining his regular season form
While both Chicago catches struck out in the inning, they did it in different ways. Grandal was caught looking at a pitch low in the zone, and McCann chased high.
On the bright side, Luzardo took 20 pitches to finish a scoreless inning. Now we see if Giolito got an adequate number of warmup pitches.
Was Leury rehabbing in Schaumburg or is this his first baseball action?
My bold take is that #LeuryLegend is gonna be a difference maker this series
Every outfielder gets a putout.
OK. perfect first from Giolito. That’s good.
It’s been way, way, way too many times that Grandal and his ‘great’ batting eye takes strike three (often in an RBI situation) and walks back to the dugout barking a bit at the umpire over the call. Sometimes he’s right and the pitch is just off the plate, but sometimes it does catch the plate. But it’s nearly always ‘borderline’. Instead of costing his team an unproductive out and antagonizing the ump, why doesn’t he swing at those borderliners. He may put the ball in play (see: Abreu, TA, Madrigal, …) and good things happen or he may just spoil it foul and live to see another pitch. Yas, we all know you have a seasoned batting eye, but you can’t put your trust in the umps to not give the borderliners to the pitcher, especially with the insane framing going on. If you insist on thinking taking a strike three helps a rally, maybe he should bat 6th or 7th instead of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th.
Ugly strikeout by Robert….swings like he wasn’t even trying
FEEL THE POWER OF ADAM ENGEL
Robert swinging at everything
Engel, yes!!!
There you go baby… I don’t wanna see Mazara ever again
Could be a hidden benefit of the lefty in game 1. Maybe Ricky is still thinking about platooning, and a great Engel game changes his mind. I guess we’ll see.
Campaigning for Mazara to be replaced by Mike Yaz for 2021.
I think you mean campaigning for *Adam Engel* to be replaced by Yaz.
I can live with that
ENGEL!
Woho! 1 nothing sox
The perfect game is intact.
Perfect through 3.
Perfect through 4.
Perfect through 5.
Perfect through 6. Looking sharper as the game goes on, hitting the top of the zone with consistency.
The dream ends on a single up the middle to start the 7th. Still, wow.
Lucas looking sharp. Let’s hope he keeps up this pace
Adam Engel has supplanted Jermaine Dye as the most recent White Sox home run hitter in the postseason.
And Abreu has now supplanted Engel! 3-0.
TA’s bat was MIA for a while, but he is back.
Jay Clam
Abreu!!!
MAL TIEMPO
oh, yass!! Jose!
Pito!
The 3-run lead makes me less irate about the inconsistent strike zone.
This ESPN broadcast is ….how can I put it elegantly?….Bad? The Worst? Really bad?
This is ESPN during the pandemic. Most of their broadcasts this year have been pretty bad, regardless of booth.
They always are.
I had low expectations, and maybe its the score, but I thought it’d be worse. I was thinking it would have been a good move to let the local home announcers take over the games, then I remembered that would mean frenetic Dallas Braden commentary. No thanks.
The female commentator keeps yakking on and on about everything but the game…man what a pill. Give me Jason and Stoney
Wonder if they pitch around Abreu there if Encarnacion was behind him.
They should probably be pitching around him no matter who’s next… unless it’s Engel.
If the Sox pitchers just throw strikes, this A’s lineup doesn’t scare me at all.
Maybe – and I’m just spitballing here – but maybe the A’s shoulda started a right hander.
According to Billy Beane, they have a plan….
Dude hits the team’s first postseason HR in a dozen years and shows bunt on his next at bat!
Happily, he swung away. Now a triple and single shy of the cycle.
Put your butt into it, Adam!
Leury looks rusty
I’ve apparently never heard Wendelken out loud before. I don’t like the syllable that is stressed and refuse to acknowledge it as such.
Well, it’s ESPN and a non-Yankee, so I’m guessing they’ve never heard it out loud before, too.
I’m not sure what the EV numbers are, but Moncada has taken some decent swings, which is encouraging. It sure would be nice to see him get going.
The last groundout was 106.3 and the line drive in the first was 103.2, so yeah, stay right there, Yoan.
Both swings looked like easy power, too. That was 2019 Moncada.
That’s the way, Luis.
I was thinking Robert should swing backwards since his best hits seem to go straight back foul lately. I’m not sure of the physics, but a thought I had. Giolito, on the other hand, thank you.
Sean Manaea might as well go spend some extra time with his family or something. There’s no way they pitch another lefty starter in this series.
Gameday displaying a two-word phrase alongside the score of the game as Giolito comes out for the sixth.
I made a comment upthread after two slightly in jest and feel compelled to update it each inning.
I feel you must continue to update it. You certainly aren’t a jinx, but of course, stopping it would be. That’s science.
I’m at it as long as he’s at it.
Well, maybe that jinxed him!
That’s ok. Hell of a run by him. Now, they can just focus on finishing this out, making the best decision the rest of the way without worrying about just leaving him in as the only option.
I think he comes out now with 7 shutout innings. A prime example of a quality start, especially as it is his team’s first postseason game since George W. Bush was president.
Mission accomplished.
Go off Giolito. Wow.
Our future RF just tied up the game against Minnesota.
ALL HR ALL THE TIME
(This time off a righty.)
Hello old friend Joakim. And thanks!
Not sure Lucas should be back out here for the 8th
Even more sure Ricky should have pulled him after the 4-0 walk.
You’ve got a good bullpen–use it!!
Why why…
Come on, Renteria! Do your job. Giolito shouldn’t have even come out for the 8th.
4 run lead and 2 innings to cover. Why have a bullpen if not for that? We desperately need Giolito all postseason.
I did not care for sending Giolito back out. I extra did not care for not pulling him after the walk.
I agree with the female commentator too regarding her analysis on leaving Giolito in.
I was surprised, but I get it. The compressed postseason schedule will tax bullpens more than usual this year, and trying to get as many outs as possible from the starter may pay dividends later in the series.
Anyway, with the help of Marshall and Bummer, they got out of it with one run. Three outs to go, up three runs…
Good point. Hopefully we benefit from how many pitches we are seeing from several of their bullpen pieces. I get trying to limit ours if we can.
Yep. I would have gone to the ‘pen, but I thought it was a defensible. Lucas was just cruising.
Sox win! And tomorrow Playoff Vet Dallas Keuchel can get them to the next round.