Gamethread: White Sox at Cardinals
Bryan Ramos makes his debut at the plate while the South Siders look for their second series win
Happy Sunday! Unlike yesterday, today seems like a beautiful day for some baseball. The Chicago White Sox will play the series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon after winning a rain-delayed wild one yesterday. With a win, they can secure their second series win of the season, which is kind of sad, considering we are already in May. Either way, the odds are high-ish with Garrett Crochet on the mound against Matthew Liberatore and a bullpen game for the Cards.
Crochet has had his problems but has impressed overall this year. His 1-4 record and 5.97 ERA don't do him justice, but fans know what he can do. His last game against the Minnesota Twins was good but short. He went five innings with just two hits, two runs, and seven strikeouts. Unfortunately, the team emptied out their bullpen arms yesterday, so let's hope he can have a bit of a longer outing today.
Speaking of the arm barn, the Cardinals will have a bullpen game starting with the lefty Matthew Liberatore. He is a former Tampa Bay Rays first-round pick from 2018 but has spent his entire professional career with the Cardinals. He was also one of the players involved in the Randy Arozarena trade from the Cardinals to the Rays, so we can assume there is a high standard for him knowing the star Arozarena became. He debuted in 2022 and has appeared in some solid relief outings, with his last two being scoreless. We will see how long he goes and how the rest of the day goes for their pitchers, but it has already been said that some of their bullpen arms aren't even available today, so I'm not really sure what their game plan is. That seems like a White Sox-type level of dysfunction.
Robbie Grossman is the chosen leadoff hitter today. Bryan Ramos will get his first start, and we will see what he can do at the plate. Martín Maldonado is picked to start over the young, fast, and offensively excelling catcher Korey Lee. We see this every year, where the manager seems to obsess over some veteran instead of giving the younger guys time to shine, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.
Series finale in St. Louis pic.twitter.com/KcYoZbgyGL
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) May 5, 2024
The starting nine for the Cards:
Celebrating AAPI Heritage Day at Busch Stadium!#ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/DTaglIP1cc
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 5, 2024
Game time is 1:15 p.m. CST on NBCSCHI, and you can listen in on ESPN 1000.