Pregame notes: A life-changing battle for AL Central supremacy

DETROIT -- By way of the entire AL Central being 2-4, the Tigers playing a day game for their home opener in the Eastern time zone, and this only being the second week of the season, the winner of this game will hold the division lead by themselves for at least a few hours.

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Will Venable didn't commit to Mike Tauchman spending the whole weekend in Charlotte for his rehab assignment, but said he is scheduled to play 7-9 innings on Friday night, and that his gradual build-up from a right hamstring strain--including getting Thursday off entirely--has gone to plan so far.

"We were transparent with him on what the game plan was but we also said there was going to be some flexibility," Venable said. We want to take it day by day, see how he comes out today and re-evaluate."

Tyler Gilbert (right knee bursitis) struck out four in two innings in his first Triple-A rehab assignment and it certainly sounds like he has a few more outings to go before he's ready to be considered. There are five relievers currently in the Sox pen with minor league options remaining, so there would be plenty of ways to make room. However, Gilbert would join with Bryse Wilson and Rule 5 pick Mike Vasil (since neither can be optioned) as Sox relief arms who were stretched out in spring but are now working in relief.

As Wilson explains, there's no real secret way to maintain starter stamina while working out of the bullpen.

"If I go one inning at a time for a while, obviously it's going to affect how long I can go, but I always feel like I can go three innings regardless," said Wilson, who eschews throwing any side sessions when he's working in relief. "I know that I've done it before and I've been able to bounce back and rebound from it pretty well. If I hadn't done it in the past, it would be hard for me to be confident and comfortable going three innings."

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Colson Montgomery is healthy, he's just scuffling, with 15 strikeouts in 22 trips to the plate in Triple-A before he had a night off on Thursday.

There's a conversation to be had at some point about how much swing fluidity and ability to hit for average has been lost in the process of maturing into the well above-average left-handed raw power he was projected to develop, but right now it's all about hoping this is an aberration.

"Have all the confidence in [Sergio Santos] and all the confidence in Colson that he’ll get going," Venable said. "He has one good weekend and his numbers are right where we want them to be. I know that he’ll be in a good spot. He left spring training in a good spot. I don’t think anyone’s going to look too deeply in 20 at-bats."

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No White Sox starter has worked longer than six innings yet. Martín Pérez's 93 pitches in his season debut are also a team-high, and who knows if he gets that far without having a literal no-hitter going. Venable said to expect just an incremental bump as the rotation goes through its second turn.

"We're still here in the early going, want to be responsible and not expose guys to too much workload too early," Venable said. "At the same time, if guys are cruising along, and all these guys have now pitched into the fifth inning--at least most of them [Note: all of them have]--there's no reason why we can't get into the seventh inning. But we just want to be mindful of what it means for them and what it means for our group."

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There will probably be multiple positional subs in this game, on both sides. For the Tigers, AJ Hinch has that established in his managerial style. For Venable, his positional crop almost demands it.

"That's something that we'll talk through and how we're going to strategize trying to counter that," Venable said. "They like to mix and match and they're doing it with really good players, too. So we'll see what it looks like, but we'll be prepared."

First pitch: White Sox at Tigers

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

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