Series preview: Guardians vs. White Sox

The Guardians and White Sox are two kinds of disappointing right now. The former wasn’t expected to be much coming into the season, but a great June inflated expectations which they haven’t met in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the latter was supposed to be a front-runner in the division, yet they sit two games under .500 and third in the AL Central. They’ve been hot recently, but overall, you’d be hard-pressed to find a pumped-up White Sox fan right now.

Just when it looked like the Guardians were back on track offensively, with a 13-1 win over the Royals on Sunday, they snapped right back into reality with a 5-1 loss on Sunday. What offense, if any, shows up for them over this stretch of games?

After a normal Monday game, the Guards and Sox will play two on Tuesday as a make-up for an April 18 rainout. They will also play another doubleheader next Sunday as a make-up of a May rainout. These should be their last two doubleheaders until mid-September, but I’m not holding my breath.

The doubleheader pitching matchups of this four-game set aren’t set in stone yet, but Shane Bieber will be in there somewhere for the Guardians as Dylan Cease will be for the White Sox. Konnor Pilkington hasn’t pitched since he was optioned after the last doubleheader, so maybe he comes up for one again.

For the Guardians, this series (the following four-game set against the Tigers) will an opportunity to put a brutal road trip behind them and head into the All-Star break with some wins.

Team at a glance

• Record: 41-43 (10th in AL)
• Runs Scored: 360
• Run Differential: -37 (12th in AL)
• Last 10: 6-4
• Slash: .255/.311/.379
• wOBA: .303 (9th in AL)
• wRC+: 98 (9th in AL)
• ERA: 4.10 (12th in AL)
• SIERA: 3.85 (6th in AL)
• K-BB%: 14.6% (6th in AL)

Projected starters

Monday, July 11, 7:10 p.m. ET: RHP Lance Lynn vs. RHP Cal Quantrill
Tuesday, July 12, 1:10 p.m. ET: TBD vs. TBD
Tuesday, July 12, 7:10 p.m. ET: TBD vs. TBD
Wednesday, July 13, 7:10 p.m. ET: RHP Lucas Giolito vs. Aaron Civale

Roster

• 40-man roster
• Depth chart