It’s do-or-die for the White Sox today, as they stand four games behind the Guardians, five in the lost column, and six unless they sweep four games from Cleveland in the next week to earn the tiebreaker.
So much is riding on this game for the Sox that Miguel Cairo switched the pitching rotation, moving the struggling Lucas Giolito back a day so the red-hot Lance Lynn will face the Guardians. And conversely, it’s apparent that so little is riding on this game for the Guardians that Terry Francona switched out Triston McKenzie, who has absolutely owned the White Sox this year (including a 14-strikeout performance last month) for a minor league call-up who gave up eight runs in 3 1⁄3 innings to Houston in his only previous trip to the bigs.