Gamethread: White Sox at Brewers

Iván Nova was solid in his first start, and will face a strong challenge today in Phoenix

Iván (The Bossa) Nova had a strong first start this spring for the White Sox, and if he can hold down the third (or fourth, or fifth) spot as the Sox’ Designated Innings Eater (or DIE, an abbreviation which may come in handy during the regular season) it will go a long way toward alleviating one of Chicago’s biggest weaknesses from last year’s 100-loss debacle — the rotation.

After three straight wins to end last week, the White Sox fell short yesterday vs. the Oakland A’s. The offense has been pretty sharp all spring, and really stepped up during that three-game mini-streak. Impressive even yesterday were the offense’s five walks against nine Ks; that sort of ratio will also do much to wash the stink off of last year’s 100 losses.

But enough jibba-jabba about 100 losses; the White Sox have only nine this spring, and have already beaten Milwaukee once in Cactus League play this year.

Today’s Brewers starter, Jhoulys Chacin, will be facing few, if any, potential White Sox opening day starters:

Leury Garcia, 2b...hitting .364 so far

Ryan Goins, 3b....136

James McCann, c....389 (wow)

Matt Skole, 1b....417 (wower)

Eloy Jimenez, DH.....130 (not so wow)

Danny Mendick, ss....412 (back to wow)

Luis Robert, lf....375 (plenty wow)

Ryan Cordell, rf....280

Adam Engel, cf....261 (off a .383 spring in 2018)

Not often you see a big league lineup with the outfielders in the 7-8-9 spots.

The Brewers are countering with essentially their opening day lineup of many All-Stars, so if things go wrong, I doubt you can blame it on The Bossa Nova.

The game is on MLB Network, but the only online option (I believe) is the Brewers radio broadcast via MLB.TV.