White Sox vs. Athletics: Game 1 preview and pregame show

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 SOXORDERATHLETICS
Tim Anderson, SS1Tommy La Stella, 2B
Yoán Moncada, 3B2Robbie Grossman, LF
Yasmani Grandal, DH3Marcus Semien, SS
José Abreu, 1B4Matt Olson, 1B
James McCann, C5Mark Canha, RF
Luis Robert, CF6Jake Lamb, 3B
Adam Engel, RF7Ramón Laureano, CF
Leury García, LF8Chad Pinder, DH
Nick Madrigal, 2B9Sean 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
Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
94 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
burning-phoneix

Why is the first pitch at a weird time like 2:08PM? Why not just round it up to 2:10?

GrinnellSteve

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!

Foulkelore

Nice! I’m going Konerko with the ’05 World Series patch.

GrinnellSteve

Also nice.

Gus

L Bob 88, need farmio patch still

John SF

Let’s go, Let’s Go!

asinwreck

Tim’s hitting again. Good first AB.

asinwreck

And though Moncada flied out, that was a well-hit ball.

Foulkelore

Dang, Moncada hit that one pretty good. Wrong guy out there in CF.

As Cirensica

Arrrggghh…I was in a long conference call… missed all the start of the game

Shingos Cheeseburgers

Grandal not spooked by the big stage and maintaining his regular season form

asinwreck

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.

joewho112

Was Leury rehabbing in Schaumburg or is this his first baseball action?

Shingos Cheeseburgers

My bold take is that #LeuryLegend is gonna be a difference maker this series

asinwreck

Every outfielder gets a putout.

OK. perfect first from Giolito. That’s good.

denny

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.

As Cirensica

Ugly strikeout by Robert….swings like he wasn’t even trying

asinwreck

FEEL THE POWER OF ADAM ENGEL

Milky✌️

Robert swinging at everything

Foulkelore

Engel, yes!!!

As Cirensica

There you go baby… I don’t wanna see Mazara ever again

Foulkelore

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.

denny

Campaigning for Mazara to be replaced by Mike Yaz for 2021.

HallofFrank

I think you mean campaigning for *Adam Engel* to be replaced by Yaz.

As Cirensica

I can live with that

Milky✌️

ENGEL!

jokkeholmberg

Woho! 1 nothing sox

asinwreck

The perfect game is intact.

asinwreck

Perfect through 3.

asinwreck

Perfect through 4.

asinwreck

Perfect through 5.

asinwreck

Perfect through 6. Looking sharper as the game goes on, hitting the top of the zone with consistency.

asinwreck

The dream ends on a single up the middle to start the 7th. Still, wow.

Milky✌️

Lucas looking sharp. Let’s hope he keeps up this pace

Shingos Cheeseburgers

Adam Engel has supplanted Jermaine Dye as the most recent White Sox home run hitter in the postseason.

asinwreck

And Abreu has now supplanted Engel! 3-0.

asinwreck

TA’s bat was MIA for a while, but he is back.

Foulkelore

Jay Clam

Foulkelore

Abreu!!!

Milky✌️

MAL TIEMPO

LuBob DuRob

oh, yass!! Jose!

jokkeholmberg

Pito!

asinwreck

The 3-run lead makes me less irate about the inconsistent strike zone.

As Cirensica

This ESPN broadcast is ….how can I put it elegantly?….Bad? The Worst? Really bad?

asinwreck

This is ESPN during the pandemic. Most of their broadcasts this year have been pretty bad, regardless of booth.

Milky✌️

They always are.

LuBob DuRob

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.

denny

The female commentator keeps yakking on and on about everything but the game…man what a pill. Give me Jason and Stoney

Foulkelore

Wonder if they pitch around Abreu there if Encarnacion was behind him.

LuBob DuRob

They should probably be pitching around him no matter who’s next… unless it’s Engel.

Foulkelore

If the Sox pitchers just throw strikes, this A’s lineup doesn’t scare me at all.

soxfan

Maybe – and I’m just spitballing here – but maybe the A’s shoulda started a right hander.

As Cirensica

According to Billy Beane, they have a plan….

asinwreck

Dude hits the team’s first postseason HR in a dozen years and shows bunt on his next at bat!

asinwreck

Happily, he swung away. Now a triple and single shy of the cycle.

asinwreck

Adam Engel driving starters out of playoff games. https://t.co/GdRwqqXZih

— James Fegan (@JRFegan) September 29, 2020

Milky✌️

Put your butt into it, Adam!

As Cirensica

Leury looks rusty

Foulkelore

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.

HallofFrank

Well, it’s ESPN and a non-Yankee, so I’m guessing they’ve never heard it out loud before, too.

HallofFrank

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.

Foulkelore

The last groundout was 106.3 and the line drive in the first was 103.2, so yeah, stay right there, Yoan.

HallofFrank

Both swings looked like easy power, too. That was 2019 Moncada.

asinwreck

That’s the way, Luis.

HouseOfTheRisingSox

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.

Foulkelore

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.

Flitcraft

Gameday displaying a two-word phrase alongside the score of the game as Giolito comes out for the sixth.

asinwreck

I made a comment upthread after two slightly in jest and feel compelled to update it each inning.

Foulkelore

I feel you must continue to update it. You certainly aren’t a jinx, but of course, stopping it would be. That’s science.

asinwreck

I’m at it as long as he’s at it.

asinwreck

Well, maybe that jinxed him!

Foulkelore

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.

asinwreck

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.

Foulkelore

Mission accomplished.

Milky✌️

Go off Giolito. Wow.

Foulkelore

Our future RF just tied up the game against Minnesota.

asinwreck

ALL HR ALL THE TIME

(This time off a righty.)

Milky✌️

Hello old friend Joakim. And thanks!

shaggy65

Not sure Lucas should be back out here for the 8th

shaggy65

Even more sure Ricky should have pulled him after the 4-0 walk.

You’ve got a good bullpen–use it!!

jokkeholmberg

Why why…

MarketMaker

Come on, Renteria! Do your job. Giolito shouldn’t have even come out for the 8th.

MarketMaker

4 run lead and 2 innings to cover. Why have a bullpen if not for that? We desperately need Giolito all postseason.

Milky✌️

I did not care for sending Giolito back out. I extra did not care for not pulling him after the walk.

jokkeholmberg

I agree with the female commentator too regarding her analysis on leaving Giolito in.

asinwreck

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…

HouseOfTheRisingSox

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.

HallofFrank

Yep. I would have gone to the ‘pen, but I thought it was a defensible. Lucas was just cruising.

asinwreck

Sox win! And tomorrow Playoff Vet Dallas Keuchel can get them to the next round.