Technically, White Sox players and coaches were just wearing shorts during batting practice to honor the late Bill Veeck, since using them in-game has already been tried.
There are a series of Veeck-style promotions going on during this game--pregame skydivers, a petting zoo, a first pitch thrown out by his son--and at press time, I'm unsure if the bride and groom that walked past me while I was interviewing a Sox coach in the dugout just got married, or was rehearsing for a Married in a Minute ceremony officiated by Ron Kittle later Saturday evening.
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The Guardians have lefty Joey Cantillo going, but Will Venable said nights off for Mike Tauchman, Colson Montgomery and Andrew Benintendi were largely pre-arranged workload management.
"This is more of off days for those guys," Venable said. "This was a scheduled one for Colson, let him know a couple days ago that he was gonna be off. Then with Beni and Tauch, just as we're getting through this and this stretch with –– I don't know how many in a row –– but wanted to give them a day also. So it's just kind of a blow for those guys, and we have other guys here that can step up and with the matchup take advantage of it."
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Part of having home clubhouse open to media four hours before first pitch is that occasionally some beat writer is going arrive on time to notice that Jonathan Cannon is actually still here in Chicago and was throwing a bullpen on Saturday. The stated goals for him remain pretty similar.
"It's going to be about strike-throwing for him, and that means some different things," Venable said. "He's got different ways to get there. We've collaborated with him. He and Ethan have talked about some really fine points that they're going to try to execute. Broadly, though, it's going to be about being competitive in the zone, specifically with the fastballs, and commanding those pitches."
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Miguel Vargas is taking ground balls and making throws with his left oblique strain, and Venable spoke positively of Martín Pérez's second rehab start.
"Four innings, 58 pitches, he felt really good," Venable said. "Talked to him afterwards, he was really excited. He'll have at least another rehab start there on his next turn around. But really positive report coming out of it."
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Tomorrow's game will be broadcast on WGN due to Bears preseason coverage being more important to the people of this city than literally anything. Watch us put ESPN 1000 in the post out of habit.
First pitch: White Sox vs. Guardians
TV: CHSN
Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WRTO 1200 AM (Spanish)
TV:
| Guardians | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Steven Kwan, LF | 1 | Lenyn Sosa, 2B |
| Daniel Schneemann, CF | 2 | Edgar Quero, C |
| José Ramírez, 3B | 3 | Luis Robert Jr., CF |
| Kyle Manzardo, DH | 4 | Curtis Mead, 1B |
| Bo Naylor, C | 5 | Kyle Teel, DH |
| Gabriel Arias, SS | 6 | Michael A. Taylor, RF |
| C.J. Kayfus, 1B | 7 | Corey Julks, LF |
| Brayan Rocchio, 2B | 8 | Jacob Amaya, SS |
| Nolan Jones, RF | 9 | Brooks Baldwin, 3B |
| Joey Cantillo | SP | Sean Burke |
