White Sox at Blue Jays
Two struggling aces face off Thursday as the Chicago White Sox visit the Toronto Blue Jays in the finale of their four-game series. The road-weary White Sox send left-hander Chris Sale to the mound in hopes he can rebound from back-to-back rough outings. The Blue Jays counter with National League Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, who has had a dismal April but showed signs of a breakout in his last start.
Thursday marks the end of a 10-game road trip for the White Sox - and it has been a difficult one. Chicago is 3-6 heading into the final game of the trek, and hadn't been producing much offense away from U.S. Cellular Field. That changed in Wednesday's 7-0 victory and may be even less of an issue against Dickey, who has a 9.61 ERA with 15 walks in 19 2/3 career innings against the White Sox.
PITCHING MATCHUP: White Sox LH Chris Sale (1-1, 5.21 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH R.A. Dickey (1-2, 5.82)
Sale is coming off his worst outing as a starter, surrendering eight runs over 4 1/3 innings in a one-sided loss to the Cleveland Indians. Sale was forthright about his performance after the game. “It was a terrible, terrible day," Sale told reporters. "My team needed a better effort and deserved a better effort. I didn’t give it to them." After limiting opponents to 19 home runs over 192 innings a season ago, the 24-year-old has already given up four homers in 19 innings in 2013.
Dickey is trending in the opposite direction. After opening the campaign with back-to-back clunkers against Cleveland and Boston, the knuckleballer limited a potent Kansas City lineup to one run on five hits over 6 1/3 innings. Dickey hasn't faced the White Sox since July 11, 2009, when he surrendered three runs on three walks in 1 1/3 relief innings while with the Minnesota Twins. Paul Konerko and Alex Rios both have a pair of home runs in 10 career at-bats against Dickey.
WALK-OFFS
1. Sale is 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA and one save in three career appearances against Toronto.
2. White Sox 1B Adam Dunn is 1-for-30 on the road trip and is hitting .111 for the season.
3. The teams don't meet again until June 10-12.
PREDICTION: White Sox 4, Blue Jays 3