Tigers at White Sox
The Chicago White Sox hope to continue an early-season power surge when they open their home schedule with the first of three games against the Central Division-rival Detroit Tigers on Thursday afternoon. Chicago leads the major leagues with 14 home runs in five contests after belting two more and holding on for a 4-3 victory Wednesday at Toronto to salvage the finale of a three-game set.
White Sox manager Rick Renteria hopes his 3-2 team will find more ways to score, telling the Chicago Tribune: “Everybody knows you ultimately can’t just win on the long ball. That’s the big thing in the game today is long ball. But when you start to face good pitching, you have to be prepared to do all facets of the game.” Jose Abreu, along with Matt Davidson, went deep Wednesday for the White Sox and Jordan Zimmermann will try to keep the ball in the park when he takes the mound for the Tigers against Chicago’s veteran James Shields with cold conditions expected Thursday. Detroit started the season 1-4 at home before Wednesday’s game against Kansas City was postponed due to poor weather, and has managed just one home run in the early going - a solo blast by Miguel Cabrera. The Tigers have already been shut out twice, but Cabrera (team-high five RBIs) and Nicholas Castellanos (7-for-21, three RBIs) need to be contained.
TV: 4:10 p.m. ET, FS Detroit, NBCS Chicago
PITCHING MATCHUP: Tigers RH Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 6.00 ERA) vs. White Sox RH James Shields (1-0, 6.00)
Zimmermann kept his team in the game on Opening Day, allowing four runs on six hits over six innings, striking out eight and walking just one while throwing 81 pitches in a no-decision. It was a reasonably solid start for the 31-year-old Wisconsin native after a rough 2017 season when he went 8-13 with a career-worst 6.08 ERA. Abreu is 8-for-15 with a homer and five RBIs versus Zimmermann, who was 2-1 with a 6.19 ERA in three games against the White Sox last year.
Shields gave up four runs in the first inning last Thursday, but settled down to shut down Kansas City in the next five innings to earn the victory, yielding five hits and one walk overall. The 36-year-old California native recorded four of his five wins at home last season and went 2-0 with a 3.97 ERA versus the Tigers in 2017 to improve to 9-8 in his career with a 4.43 mark against them. Cabrera has owned Shields over the years, going 26-for-70 with 10 doubles, four homers and 12 RBIs.
WALK-OFFS
1. The White Sox won 10 of 19 games against the Tigers last year to win the season series for the first time since 2008.
2. Davidson, who belted three homers on Opening Day, has four blasts overall and a team-leading seven RBIs.
3. Detroit SS Jose Iglesias is off to a slow start with one hit in 16 at-bats and batted just .190 against Chicago in 2017.