Game 123 Preview: White Sox @ Angels

White Sox (54-65) @ Angels (59-63)

The White Sox roll into town for a 4 game set before the Angels hit the road on Monday and head to Texas. This will be the first meetup of these two teams in 2019. Last year, the Angels won the season series 5 games to 2. The White Sox just took 2 out of 3 in Houston so they are coming in hot.

Know your foe:

White Sox - who’s hot (last week):

Weather Forecast

GAME 1

(L) Andrew Heaney (4.49) v. (R) Reynaldo Lopez (5.16 ERA)
Thursday, Aug 15th @ 7:07PM

Summary:

Andrew Heaney spent some time out (almost a month), and didn’t have the best appearance on the 10th when he only lasted 3.2 innings. Since this is sort of a like a sequel to that appearance - that should explain my subtitle above. The point is, Heaney will have to be better this time around. His last 3 starts he’s only thrown 5, 4.1, and 3.2 innings and it took him 74 pitches to record those 11 outs against the Red Sox.

Reynaldo Lopez has been fire since July 14th. Over those 6 starts, he boasts a 2.13 ERA and 37 Ks over 33 innings. He’s also only allowed 1 home run over that span. Lopez is prone to walks, so expect to see some of those in this opening game. He makes for a touch match against Heaney, despite how the FiveThirtyEight odds look below.

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Current Standings (sorted by playoff odds)

Notes/Credits:
(Pitch tracking data from baseballsavant.mlb.com)
(Splits from FanGraphs Splits Tool and Baseball Reference)
(Standings/odds from fivethirtyeight.com)