Chicago @ Detroit preview
Comerica Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 15, 2010 ) Detroit 13, Chi. White Sox 8
The Chicago White Sox needed a fairly successful road trip during this critical stretch to stay within reach of the divison-leading Minnesota Twins. So far, so good.
The White Sox begin Monday’s four-game series against the Detroit Tigers with a perfect 6-0 mark on their 10-game road swing. Chicago has already swept the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox and now heads to Comerica Park, where it has already won four of five this year.
Edwin Jackson will face Max Scherzer in a matchup of pitchers traded for each other last offseason. The Tigers will get their third look in about a month at Jackson since he returned to the American League. They haven’t had much success against their former teammate.
The Tigers traded Jackson to the Arizona Diamondbacks last winter as part of a three-team trade to acquire the 26-year-old Scherzer, who has pitched fairly well during his first tour around the American League.
Jackson was dealt back into the AL Central on July 30 when the Diamondbacks traded him to Chicago. The White Sox were simply looking for an arm to help replace Jake Peavy, who is out for the season. Jackson has pitched like an ace.
He is 3-0 with a 1.47 ERA in five starts for the White Sox. Monday marks the third time in his six starts he’ll face the Tigers, against whom he is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA. He has posted double-digit strikeouts in his last three starts, the first White Sox pitcher to do that since Floyd Bannister in 1985.
Chicago enters the series playing perhaps the best it has all year. The White Sox finished off a three-game sweep at Boston by scoring four runs with two outs in the ninth inning on Sunday for their first sweep at Fenway since 1991.
Now they’ll face a powerful right-hander in Scherzer, who seems to be getting stronger as the season winds down. He has won his last three decisions and has lost just once since the start of August.
Scherzer has allowed an earned run or less in five consecutive starts.
Since his last rough start on June 4, when he allowed five runs in five innings against the Royals, he is 8-4 with a 1.90 ERA. He pitched nine innings in a 2-1, 10-inning loss in his most recent start, prompting Tigers manager Jim Leyland to call him one of the league’s best pitchers.
Monday’s game begins a seven-game homestand for the Tigers, who will welcome the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend.