Throughout the first five games of the season (two have been postponed), the White Sox sit at 2-3, good for fourth in the A.L. Central. Aside from an offensive outburst that saw the team put up 11 runs, the offense has been predictably mediocre. Two of the biggest surprises have been the slow start of Tim Anderson, and the torrid start of Avisail Garcia. After a rare rough outing on Opening Day for Jose Quintana, he settled in nicely his last start, only giving up 2 runs, but of course he got zero run support and fell to 0-2.
Now, the White Sox hit the road for the first time, in what should be a very tough test as they visit the reigning A.L. Champion Cleveland Indians.
Probable Pitchers
Game 1 @ 3:10 p.m. -- James Shields (1-0) vs. Carlos Carrasco (1-0)
Game 2 @ 5:10 p.m. -- Derek Holland (0-1) vs. Danny Salazar (0-0)
Game 3 @ 5:10 p.m. -- Miguel Gonzalez (1-0) vs. Josh Tomlin (0-1)
Player To Watch: Avi Garcia
Avi has come out of the gates firing. He currently leads the A.L. in batting average, hitting an incredible .474. It will be interesting to see whether he can keep up his hot start over the next few days. The optimists will say that Avi is finally developing into the player we all thought he could be. The pessimists will say this is just a fluke hot streak.
Time will tell, but it should be noted that he already has 1000+ plate appearances in the MLB. At this point, we pretty much know what we are getting with Avi, and he should cool off in the near future, though I'd definitely love to be wrong.
Prediction
Now that both Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar are fully healthy for the Indians, it will definitely be tough to pull out a series win here. Edwin Encarnacion and Francisco Lindor should wreck havoc on the back end of the White Sox rotation, and overall the pitching matchups just do not work in the White Sox favor here. A series against one of, if not the best teams in the A.L. without a Quintana appearance is going to be a tough one to win.
If Miguel Gonzalez can put together a decent start in the finale against the very average Josh Tomlin, the White Sox might be able to salvage a game. That's about as good as it should get for the South Siders.
Indians take series 2-1.
