ALDS Game 3: White Sox-Astros Preview and First Pitch
For the White Sox, it all comes down to this. It’s their job to make sure it all comes down to this Monday afternoon as well.
The Sox get their chance to use a raucous home crowd to their advantage, and they’ll have to seize it in hopes of staving off the first of three match points for the Astros. Dylan Cease will take the ball for the White Sox against formidable rookie righty Luis Garcia.
We talked about Cease on Saturday, and how he’s been the second-most effective pitcher in the second half behind Lucas GIolito, at last when it comes to the combination of performance and no health scares. Like Giolito, he’s been great at getting swings and misses without having to leave the strike zone. He’ll have to be unlike Giolito in terms of sustaining success doing so, as Giolito’s strikeouts dried up after the first inning.
As for Garcia, he’s been superb this year, with a 3.30 ERA and 167 strikeouts against 50 walks over 155⅓ innings in his first full season. There are a couple reasons why he’s starting Game 3 — lefties can hurt him …
- vs. RHB: 1.82/.247/.301, 7.9% BB 29.0% K, over 317 PA
- vs. LHB: .279/.340/.474, 7.9% BB, 23,7% K over 316 PA
… and so can the third time through the order.
- First PA: .212/.271/.341, 6 HR over 252 PA
- Second PA: .246/.306/.386, 6 HR over 249 PA
- Third PA: .247/.327/.505, 6 HR over 104 PA
The Sox may be lucky to see Garcia a third time, as managers typically have quicker hooks when the series has a chance of ending. That’s why they’re maxing out the number of lefties in a lineup, including the probably unpopular decision of starting Leury García in right field, which could be just as much about Adam Engel’s unavailability given the weird pinch-hitting decision in Game 2.
The other thing about Garcia is that he’s the first starter the Sox have seen who isn’t known for getting ground balls, so this is their chance at putting the ball over the fence. On an unseasonably warm night, that seems like it’ll be necessary. Perhaps if the Sox can cross “first extra-base hit” off their list, the “first victory” can follow.
* * * * * * * * *
First Pitch
TV: Fox Sports 1
Lineups:
| POS | WHITE SOX | ORDER | ASTROS | POS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SS | Tim Anderson | 1 | Jose Altuve | 2B |
| CF | Luis Robert | 2 | Michael Brantley | LF |
| 1B | José Abreu | 3 | Alex Bregman | 3B |
| C | Yasmani Grandal | 4 | Yordan Alvarez | DH |
| LF | Eloy Jiménez | 5 | Carlos Correa | SS |
| 3B | Yoán Moncada | 6 | Kyle Tucker | RF |
| DH | Gavin Sheets | 7 | Yuli Gurriel | 1B |
| RF | Leury García | 8 | Jake Meyers | CF |
| 2B | César Hernández | 9 | Martin Maldonado | C |
| RHP | Lucas Giolito | SP | Framber Valdez | LHP |
Leury starting in right field. Wow…just…Wow.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
This didn’t age well
Maybe @Elena was saying, “wow, great move, Tony.”
To be fair, the concern was (and remains) that Leury has misplayed some balls badly in each of his last two appearances in rf.
I am aware, but Billy Hamilton or Engel are available for later innings. We needed the bat.
Was there confirmation Engel is available and not hurt?
Who knows? Maybe Leury will hit a 3-run homer.
Let’s win big tonight and tomorrow….Let’s go!
The Sox don’t have to win three games tonight. They only have to win one. I’m feeling double-digit runs for the Sox tonight.
But like, can we explore the option of them winning three games tonight? That would be super helpful.
It wouldn’t hurt, I thnk.
A packed park in Bridgeport is about to host postseason baseball.
It’s been a while. Let’s enjoy this.
If the preview graphics can be believed, MLB is going to memory hole the Astros cheating scandal. “Five straight ALCS on the line” should come with a 72 point asterisk.
“Hey, I got seats behind home plate for the blackout game!”
“Great! Let’s wear pink!”
100 MPH!!!! Holy smokes
Gas!!!!
And another one!!!
For strike 3 swinging. Cease impressive thus far. Let’s hope this time sticks
101????????????
Cease is pumped up…throwing 100
Let’s rock this rookie in the first. Remind the astros they can’t bully us.
Katz has to break into hives seeing Garcia’s windup.
I think Katz could be newschool on this stuff. He ended up getting Lopez to ditch some of the weirder arm stuff he was playing with during the off season (under Cueto’s tutelage). But that was probably more related to Lopez already going through so many changes at once.
I’d love to see us embrace some of these funky movement patterns because it clearly works for certain players. Cease, in particular, might benefit from something that calms, steadies, and focuses him at the start of the pitch.
And it clearly helps with extension, which is something our team presumably has as a big focus with Hendricks there.
This García pitcher has a weird pitching style.?.like he is rocking a baby before he throws
Good lord…Luis García would hate a pitch clock. This game is gonna last 4 hours at this pace
Sox hitting the ball hard. Luis García might have a short outing.
Yeah five batters had good contact if you count Grandal’s hard foul.
Yordan Alvarez is the toughest out in the Astros. Takes a lot of pitches, and it’s constantly on base.
When we had this ump earlier in the year his zone was bad
giving free passes to the Astros is deadly
And the crowd is out of it. Maybe stop walking batters after you get the lead?
DEADLY!
Well, the first inning was fun.
If you ever feel like you’re in over your head, just remember Tom Hallion is at the top of his profession.
Dylan Cease drives me crazy. In one inning he is Scherzer and in the next he is Dylan Axelrod.
Just bring Kimbrel in and get it over with.
Kimbrel restructured his contract on the off day. He can only pitch with a 1-3 run lead in the 9th inning now.
Remember when our starting staff was supposed to be a strength?
It feels similar to last post-season in how the team just ran out of starting pitching it could count on
Now…why playing infield in in the 2nd inning? Am I crazy to think that was another bad decision?
And now of corse Luis García becomes unhittable.
Unwatchable. Throw the ball!
Best thing to come out of these playoffs might be AJ laughing and questioning why Kopech wasn’t used in game 2 after hearing from Katz he could go 5 innings.
Of course, then Kopech provides some evidence why he was no sure thing to cover the middle of game 2
What do you mean? Say what you want about him, but he made them earn those runs instead of walking everyone and their mom so that they score fifty runs on two hits.
Runs are runs. Kopech is fine, but it is frankly unfair to him he is being put on such a high pedestal for this series. It speaks to deficiencies in the pitching staff as much as anything
Was Tony the Russa unaware of this? I figured this game would piss me off; I expected the Russa would do all the stuff he should have been doing in the first two games.
I wonder if there is any precedent of any team going into a best of 5 games playoff and collect zero extrabase hits.
Not a good start by Cease but it’s hard to blame him: On any other post season team he would be a game 4 starter if he starts at all. He has a lot of upside, but is way to Jekyll and Hyde for a post season start.
If anything, it’s more blame on Hahn/Williams/Jerry or whomever actually makes personnel decisions for this team. They cheaped out on bring back Carlos Rodon, a pitcher with more injuries than we could count, instead of spending money on another starter. They saw Keuchel struggle all year and decided not to address it at the deadline while almost every other team acquired another starter. Bad finances + bad GMing = quick exit.
For one who travels through time, it’s ironic how often your comments are rooted in hindsight after something goes wrong.
No worries, I’ll bash him before he starts next time.
That homer left me numb…I just can’t
Can we get an extrabase at least? Man I am hurting.
Tony La Russa won the very first postseason game he managed for the White Sox. And none after that.
Make Hawk GM for a day and fire him again.
That would be a great way for Hawk to get his coveted 8 decades in baseball!
We lost the public…in the 3rd inning. We need to score some runs NOW
we got the public back in. DSNB
Time for a comeback
The White Sox now have one extra-base hit. They are now down 5-3.
That brought the crowd back!
Finally an extrabase hit. Gracias Yaz.
Leury!!!
All is forgiven, Leury!
Leury Garcia, playoff hero
And a 2nd extra base hit. I guess the 3rd Garcia was the charm! ????
I swaer to you I jumped in my living room like a 12 year old…so much adrenaline
Extra base hits help, after all.
Who would’ve thought?
It is still the 3rd inning….mercy.
I am going to be up late tonight I think
Good idea I restocked the bar
Pray for us Eastern time zoners.
Oh man. Us eastern timers are gonna have a rough morning of work.
I repeat, free passes to the Astros are DEADLY. Throw strikes!
DEADLY
Can we have the momentum for a full inning once?
Nope
Yep
If I was the white sox, I would simply score more runs than the other team. #dsnb!
No White Sox pitcher, having been given a lead, has preserved it in this series.
Oof, that’s as brutal as the 20 singles
Ryan Tepera is my hero. My post above is thankfully no longer operative.
I don’t think I will survive this game…like AJ said, I’m exhausted,
The umpire might not survive either
This game is going to last six hours. As long as we come out on top at the end.
Lol that the singles are back, but I’ll take it!
Putting in your best pitchers at the highest leverage situation? Who would’ve thought
White Sox catchers and controversial plays at the plate in the playoffs, name a more iconic pair.
Wild! DSNB!
Very much enjoyed listening to AJ Pierzynski discuss how a White Sox catcher took liberties running out of the box in a playoff game.
He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that he was, you know, himself