Pregame notes: Is it raining?

As the author sits down to pen these scattered White Sox notes, the scoreboard is directing fans--who have just entered the stadium--to clear the seating bowl due to lightning. The start of this game will be delayed by rain, but the team has yet to provide further timeline details as of yet.

White Sox baseball: it's literally electric.

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Miguel Vargas was activated, returning from a left oblique strain after a minimum 10-day stay on the injured list. He's a medical miracle, or Marcus Thames' superpower is recognizing when a hitter has just injured themselves, and keeping them from doing that baseball player thing where they take one more rep to test it out and super injure themselves. Thames talked Colson Montgomery out of continuing to take swings when he tweaked his back in spring.

Vargas' return puts an early test to how he and newcomer Curtis Mead will coexist, and the first draft involves Vargas taking over first base and Mead playing third. But Will Venable said they're figuring out what they have in Mead, and playing him at third is part of that process. The alignment could flip over the course of the final two months.

More pressingly, Mead said that having "Down Under" by Men at Work as his walk-up song was not his idea, and Tuesday night will be his first run with a song of his choosing. Having only interviewed him once, it seems like he would like to be known for having a more well-rounded personality than just "Australian man."

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Yoendrys Gómez was called up to start Tuesday's game, while Elvis Peguero was optioned and Corey Julks was designated for assignment.

Speaking of being DFA'd, that's happened to the 25-year-old Gómez three times this season, including by the White Sox earlier this year. Along with his 5.23 ERA and a 13.5 percent walk rate across his scattered 31 career major league innings, that lends credence to the notion that this is a second-straight bullpen game, or simply lends validity to the person who responded with "Who?" when I tweeted out that Gómez was starting earlier this afternoon.

But in terms of the qualification of being the best performing Triple-A starter who is deserving of a look, Gómez has quietly been meeting the mark. He has a 2.12 ERA with 64 strikeouts and 21 walks in 46 2/3 innings with the Knights, as they've steadily stretched him out to as far as five innings and 88 pitches over the past couple of months.

Gómez throws a ton of spin to hide a vulnerable heater and location is still the watchpoint for him, but it's clearly been better of recent.

"He’s got a lot of pitches that he throws," Venable said. "The big step forward with him was that he was throwing them for strikes."

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Colson Montgomery has been moved up in the batting order on account of all the home runs, where as Andrew Benintendi is moving down in the order on account of a 3-for-33 slide. The physical capabilities are just a bit different, but Benintendi's slump sounds a little bit like the dark side of selling out for pull side pop.

"He had done a nice job earlier this season where he’s pulling the ball in the air, but you also saw some base hits to left field and using the whole field," Venable said. "He’s got to get back to that kind of direction--middle of the field, keeping on some pitches. They know he’s doing damage on the pull side, they’re going to pitch him away. Just got to make an adjustment and stay through the ball a little bit. He and Marcus are working every day and I think he’s just a tick away."

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Venable didn't reveal anything new on Martín Pérez's timeline, but said Chase Meidroth had his best day yet in rehabbing his bruised right thumb, as he was able to hit off the Trajekt machine Tuesday.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Tigers

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM

Lineups: