“Let’s get some runs” is typically the domain of Chicago’s North Side, where it’s a common refrain at Wrigley Field should the Cubs be trailing at the seventh-inning stretch.
A weekend series between the host Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox could use an infusion of offense, though.
The White Sox have scored three runs in their past three games entering Friday’s series opener. The Red Sox, meanwhile, needed a bit of good fortune to rally for a 4-3 victory in 10 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, avoiding a four-game sweep that saw Boston score four runs in the first three games.
Chicago stumbles back home on an eight-game losing streak that includes an 0-6 trip through Detroit and Cleveland.
The White Sox collected just two extra-base hits while being swept by the Guardians — doubles by Austin Slater on Wednesday and Matt Thaiss on Thursday.
Boston rallied from a 2-1 deficit in the eighth inning of its series finale against the visiting Blue Jays, with Trevor Story delivering a game-ending RBI groundout.
Story said the win will “give us something to build on” and ensure a “happy flight” to Chicago.
“It’s been a tough series here with the Blue Jays, but we’re just looking to dominate at home — and we didn’t do that,” Story said.
Right-hander Davis Martin (0-1, 5.73 ERA) gets the call for the White Sox as he aims to recapture the stuff of his first start this season — not his second.
After spacing two unearned runs and four hits in six innings of a March 30 no-decision against the Los Angeles Angels, Martin sputtered on Saturday in Detroit. He yielded seven runs and nine hits, including two home runs, in five innings.
Martin feels he learned a valuable lesson about pitch sequencing from the loss to the Tigers.
“You saw they were jumping on offspeed early and often,” he said. “As we went on, we started switching it to more of a fastball-heavy approach, moving the sinker around, following it up with four-seams, doubling it up with four-seams. So just seeing that earlier, the better.
“Instead of doing that in the third and fourth innings, doing that in the first two or so. Just reading swings, reading those tendencies early in the game is another part of development.”
Martin defeated the Red Sox in his lone career appearance against them, delivering six innings of one-run, three-hit ball in a victory at Fenway Park last September. He walked one and struck out three while working around three hit batsmen.
Lefty Sean Newcomb (0-1, 5.19) will start for the Red Sox. Pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals in a doubleheader on Sunday, he turned in a bounce-back effort from his first outing of the season.
Newcomb took a no-decision, spacing one run and six hits in 4 2/3 innings, with three walks and five strikeouts. In his first game, on March 31, he took the loss after giving up four runs on eight hits over four innings of an 8-5 loss at Baltimore.
Newcomb has pitched to a 0.00 ERA in two career relief appearances against the White Sox covering 2 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
