Blue Jays at White Sox
The Chicago White Sox were rain-shortened winners on Saturday, giving themselves a chance to take a four-game series from the visiting Toronto Blue Jays. The White Sox will try to earn their sixth win in eight games and move within one win of .500 when they host the finale on Sunday.
Chicago bounced back from a 10-2 setback on Friday by jumping on the Blue Jays early Saturday, getting a leadoff homer from Leury Garcia and a pair of RBI singles from Yonder Alonso en route to a 4-1 lead before the skies opened and the game was called after five innings. Alonso went 0-for-6 in the first two games of the series to watch his batting average fall to .175 before going 2-fo-2 with the two RBIs and a run scored to help pull Chicago to 21-23. Toronto (18-27) dropped 13 of its last 17 games and scored three or fewer runs in 13 of those 17 contests. The Blue Jays will try to provide more support on Sunday for rookie right-hander Trent Thornton while the White Sox counter with righty Reynaldo Lopez.
TV: 2:10 p.m. ET, Sportsnet One, OMNI (Toronto), WGN (Chicago)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Blue Jays RH Trent Thornton (1-4, 4.81 ERA) vs. White Sox RH Reynaldo Lopez (3-4, 5.58)
Thornton earned his first major league win at San Francisco on Tuesday, surrendering two runs and three hits while striking out seven over 5 2/3 innings. The 25-year-old, who helped himself with a pair of hits in that outing, matched a season high with five walks against the Giants and completed six innings once in his first nine outings. Thornton is making his first appearance against Chicago and is 1-1 with a 3.13 ERA in four starts on the road.
Lopez is coming off a strong outing against Cleveland in which he allowed two runs - one earned - on two hits and a pair of walks in a season-high 7 2/3 innings. The Dominican Republic native yielded three or fewer runs in five of his last six outings to cut his ERA from 12.15 to its current 5.58. Lopez is seeing Toronto for the first time in 2019 and stumbled through his worst start of 2018 at home against the Blue Jays on July 27, when he was reached for eight runs across 4 1/3 innings while serving up five home runs.
WALK-OFFS
1. Blue Jays RHP Clay Buchholz was diagnosed with an upper back strain and will seek another opinion next week.
2. Chicago C James McCann is 0-for-9 over the last three games, dropping his average from .382 to .347.
3. Toronto designated RHP Javy Guerra for assignment on Saturday.