Pirates at White Sox
The Pittsburgh Pirates aim to continue their interleague mastery when they finish a two-game series at the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday afternoon. With a 10-6 win in Tuesday's series opener, the Pirates improved to 7-2 against the American League, giving them three more wins than any other team in the majors in interleague play.
Corey Dickerson had four of Pittsburgh's 16 hits Tuesday as it overcame an early 4-0 deficit to win for the third time in the last four games. Welington Castillo slugged a pair of home runs for the White Sox, losers of four straight and eight of their last nine. Yolmer Sanchez chipped in three hits and an RBI and he is 12-for-26 with three doubles and two triples during a six-game hitting streak for Chicago. Sanchez and his teammates will face off with Pirates starter Trevor Williams, who opposes Reynaldo Lopez in a matchup of two young right-handers ranked among the top 20 in the majors in ERA entering Tuesday.
TV: 2:10 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, NBCS Chicago
PITCHING MATCHUP: Pirates RH Trevor Williams (4-2, 2.63 ERA) vs. White Sox RH Reynaldo Lopez (0-2, 2.43)
Williams opened the year with six straight starts with two or fewer runs allowed before giving up three in 5 2/3 innings of a loss at Washington on Thursday. He allowed two home runs in the outing after giving up just one over 35 1/3 frames in April. The 26-year-old, who has held opponents to a .193 batting average, carries a 3-1 record and an ERA of 1.69 in interleague action into his first career start against Chicago.
Lopez entered Tuesday ranked ninth in the American League in ERA but was the only hurler in the top 34 in that category who had yet to pick up a win. He is coming off his worst start of the year after giving up five runs (four earned) in 6 2/3 innings with zero strikeouts in a no-decision against Minnesota on Thursday. The Dominican Republic native spun 5 1/3 scoreless innings in a win over the Pirates in 2016 while still a member of the Washington Nationals.
WALK-OFFS
1. Dickerson is 7-for-10 with four RBIs over the last two games.
2. White Sox 1B Jose Abreu has six RBIs over a four-game stretch after producing just one over his previous nine contests.
3. Pittsburgh is 23-9 against the AL Central dating to June 15, 2015.