Not even a month into the regular season, the Chicago White Sox already have a score to settle with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Fortunately for the White Sox, they have one of their best arms to call on when the teams start a four-game series on Thursday in Chicago.
Last weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Rays swept first-year manager Pedro Grifol’s club — twice with walk-off winners — to take all three contests by a combined margin of just five runs.
This week has been no better for the White Sox, who dropped three straight road games against the Toronto Blue Jays to see their skid reach seven games. Chicago hasn’t earned a win since beating the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 in the nightcap of an April 18 doubleheader.
The Blue Jays completed their sweep of the White Sox with an 8-0 rout on Wednesday. Chicago owns the third-worst record in the major leagues ahead of a lengthy visit from the majors’ top team.
Grifol is surprised but not deterred by his group’s 45-win pace.
“Yeah, I really didn’t anticipate it being this way,” Grifol before the Wednesday loss, “but you don’t control the cards you’re dealt. You control how you respond to it. And that’s the only thing we can control.
“We’re not going to panic through this thing. I’ll reflect and work and make adjustments and be hard on myself, but I’m definitely not going to panic.”
Right-hander Dylan Cease (2-0, 2.73 ERA) is tasked with snapping the White Sox’s losing streak.
Cease is looking for his own answers after his latest outing. On Saturday against the Rays, he allowed three runs on six hits in four-plus innings, including a first-inning home run by Randy Arozarena, who later won it in the 10th with a walk-off single.
Cease has made four lifetime starts against the Rays and is 1-1 with a 3.72 ERA across 19 1/3 innings. The right-hander has allowed 13 hits and 14 walks but fanned 22 in those contests.
He will oppose a Tampa Bay team that is in the midst of its first slump. The Rays average 6.28 runs per game, the second-best figure in the majors, but suddenly they cannot score.
They were shut out Tuesday and Wednesday by the host Astros. Houston starters Luis Garcia and Hunter Brown combined for 13 scoreless innings and 15 strikeouts while yielding just five hits and four walks.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said following the second consecutive defeat that it was more about Garcia and Brown than poor execution by his offense.
“(Brown) was pretty tough,” he said. “I mean, he had really good stuff going. We saw him last year, and it was pretty electric. It looks like he’s gotten a little bit better. … Two good pitchers.”
Cash, whose team is a major-league-best 20-5 despite the mini-skid, likes his pitching, too.
“If we continue pitching like this, we’ll put ourselves in some good spots,” he said.
Shane McClanahan (4-0, 1.86 ERA), the Rays’ No. 1 pitcher, will make his sixth start of the season on Thursday. His last time out, he got a no-decision against the White Sox on Saturday after throwing six innings of two-run, three-hit ball. He struck out 10 and walked one.
The southpaw is 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA in three career starts against the White Sox.
–Field Level Media
