We knew that this game would have two Lances enter and one Lance leave.
We didn't know that it would also feature two lineups whittled down to one.
Tony La Russa, fresh off a media conference on Wednesday where he said he didn't believe in gamesmanship, waited until 2 p.m. to make his lineup known. It supposedly hinged on the status of José Abreu, but Abreu's rousing batting practice session makes it hard to think any gameday concerns were truly warranted.
But La Russa is no stranger to insisting that he would never do the very thing he's doing, and maybe the White Sox will benefit from that ... fearlessness? We'll call it fearlessness.
The only sign that Abreu is less than 100 percent is that he's DHing, which moves Gavin Sheets to first base. Those two players were going to occupy those two positions in one of two permutations, so that doesn't affect the greater construction of the lineup.
The other uncertainty was right field, where Adam Engel is healthy enough to make a Game 1 start against an elite righty in Lance McCullers. With Engel opening in right, Leury García is freed up to play second base, and he's indeed making the start over César Hernández.
The move is just as much the result of Hernández's struggles as it is García's favored status. As a member of the White Sox, Hernández is hiting .239/.323/.275 with just three extra-base hits in 161 plate appearances against righties, whereas García is slugging 100 points higher with better numbers in the other categories as well (.261/.342/.375).
As for the White Sox, they're starting Lance Lynn, who is 1-6 with a 6.60 ERA in seven starts against Houston over the last three years, which stands out since he's been a Cy Young finalist over that time. McCullers is 4-1 with a 2.17 ERA in six starts against the White Sox over his career, with 43 strikeouts against 39 baserunners over 37⅓ innings. He has plunked six batters, so be on the lookout for early tensions.
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First Pitch
TV: Fox Sports 1
Lineups:
| POS | WHITE SOX | ORDER | ASTROS | POS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS | Tim Anderson | 1 | Jose Altuve | 2B |
| 3B | Yoán Moncada | 2 | Michael Brantley | LF |
| DH | José Abreu | 3 | Alex Bregman | 3B |
| C | Yasmani Grandal | 4 | Yordan Alvarez | DH |
| CF | Luis Robert | 5 | Yuli Gurriel | 1B |
| LF | Eloy Jiménez | 6 | Carlos Correa | SS |
| 1B | Gavin Sheets | 7 | Kyle Tucker | RF |
| RF | Adam Engel | 8 | Jake Meyers | CF |
| 2B | Leury García | 9 | Martin Maldonado | C |
| RHP | Lance Lynn | SP | Lance McCullers | RHP |
(Photo by Bill Dickinson via Creative Commons license)
