The Chicago White Sox will look to continue their domination of the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon when the teams meet in the second game of a three-game series in Toronto.
The White Sox took the opener 12-4 Friday night as play resumed after the All-Star break and have won all four games between the teams this season. The White Sox swept the Blue Jays in a three-game set at Chicago from April 3-5.
With poor air quality due to wildfire smoke, the roof at Rogers Centre was closed on Friday.
The teams are going in different directions. The Blue Jays have lost three straight games, are seven games under .500, and are last in the American League East.
The White Sox have won four games in a row, are six games above .500, and sit atop the AL Central.
“We joke about being just dumb enough to not know, and just being dumb enough to just go play hard, and let it take care of itself,” White Sox outfielder Randal Grichuk, a former Blue Jay, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “This room is really talented, and I think it’s honestly more talented than the baseball world knows and would give us credit for, because we are so young and the teams out there, people out there, just don’t really know.
“It’s been fun to be a part of it, helping them grow if I can.”
The Blue Jays have yet to look like the team of last year, when they won the AL East and took the Los Angeles Dodgers to Game 7 in the World Series.
“We’ve just got to get the big hit,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “You’ve got to get the big hit or hit homers with guys on. That’s been the ‘thing’ all year.”
The Blue Jays are scheduled to start right-hander Shane Bieber (0-1, 7.64 ERA) on Saturday. He is 8-5 with a 2.93 ERA in 18 career starts against the White Sox but has not faced them since 2023.
Right-hander Davis Martin (9-4, 3.41 ERA) will start for Chicago. He is 1-0 with a 4.26 ERA in two career games (one start) against Toronto. The win came April 5, when he pitched six scoreless innings.
The Blue Jays had a slightly different look on Friday. George Springer played left field after making all of his previous starts this season as the designated hitter. It allowed the Blue Jays to use both catchers — Brandon Valenzuela and Alejandro Kirk — in the lineup against left-handed starter Anthony Kay.
Springer had a solo home run and two RBIs, and Valenzuela homered as the DH. Luis Urias also homered.
“This won’t be every day,” Schneider said. “(Springer) is at the point where he’s comfortable at DH, and he’s not that young (36), so we don’t want to run him out there and kill him. But to use our whole roster a bit differently, we can put him out there a couple of times every couple of weeks and rotate the DH spot.”
The White Sox on Friday got a two-run homer from Sam Antonacci, four RBIs from Braden Montgomery — whose first career triple came with the bases loaded — and a three-run double by Colson Montgomery.
Tyler Schweitzer pitched the final three scoreless innings and was awarded his first career major league win.
The White Sox had 12 hits, with each starter contributing at least one.
“That just kind of stokes the flames,” Braden Montgomery said. “We’ve always got this fire in us, but add a little bit of oxygen to the fire every now and again, where we get more excited to keep going, keep the foot on the pedal.”
–Field Level Media
