Chicago @ Cleveland preview
Progressive Field
Last Meeting ( Apr 8, 2010 ) Cleveland 5, Chi. White Sox 3
The Chicago White Sox have won four games this year. Their ace has half of those victories.
While Jake Peavy continues to stumble during the start of his first full tour in the American League, Mark Buehrle has been his typical self for Chicago. He’ll get his second crack Friday against a Cleveland Indians team still struggling to score runs.
Buehrle threw seven shutout innings against Cleveland on Opening Day, limiting the Indians to just three harmless hits. He followed that up with eight strong innings in his last start against the Minnesota Twins, earning the win in both.
Cleveland historically has struggled to solve Buehrle, and its offense hasn’t improved much from that Opening Day shutout.
The Indians ended a five-game losing streak Thursday with a 3-2 win over Texas that wouldn’t have been possible without a pair of Rangers errors.
Shin-Soo Choo drove in all three runs with a homer in the eighth. Had it not been for the errors, however, the Indians would’ve been shut out for the second time this season.
Prior to Thursday, Cleveland had scored more than three runs in a game just once in the last week. The one player who can’t be blamed for the futility is Choo, who Tribe manager Manny Acta called one of the best players in the American League after his game-winning homer. The numbers back it up.
Choo was the only player in the American League last season to bat .300, hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases. Playing in a small market on a rebuilding team doesn’t help his exposure, but Choo just keeps hitting. He went 7-for-10 in the series against the Rangers and homered twice.
Chicago struggled nearly as much scoring runs during the first week as Cleveland, but the White Sox’s offense is beginning to rumble to life. They scored eight runs in a victory over Toronto on Monday and followed it up with 11 runs in a victory over the Jays on Wednesday.
The White Sox, beginning with Buehrle, certainly have the pitching to contend in the American League this season. Their questions surround the offense. Juan Pierre, Paul Konerko and Alexei Ramirez – all expected to be key contributors on offense – are batting below .200 this season.
If Carlos Quentin can stay healthy and the big bats heat up, the White Sox can beat any team in the league. Until then, at least they have Buehrle every fifth day.