clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Oooh, It Feels Good to Be Free: GameThread for Toronto Blue Jays at Chicago White Sox, 7 Jun 2012, 8:10 PM EDT

After taking the first two games of the series by a combined score of 13-5, the Jays look to sweep the White Sox tonight. Behind the efforts of veteran starters Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow, who authored last night's shutout gem, the Jays seem to have cooled off the formerly en fuego Pale Hose offence. Hopefully youngster Henderson Alvarez can put up a similar effort. Alvarez, as we all know, has done a nice job against righthanded hitters but has really struggled against lefties -- kind of surprising, given that his changeup was supposed to be his best secondary offering. Hopefully he doesn't struggle tonight against a fairly lefty-heavy lineup. He might need to be at his best because runs could be at a premium against former Senior Circuit Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, who has started the season quite well (6-1, 3.05 ERA).

After battling injuries, Peavy seems to have reinvented himself in the Shaun Marcum mould and has relied more heavily on his secondary offerings. Though he isn't K-ing a batter an inning any more, so far in 2012 he's still gotten plenty of strikeouts (8.0 K/9) and been quite stingy with the free passes (1.8 BB/9). He's done a nice job avoiding the gopher ball (0.8 HR/9), though given his batted ball profile (32% grounder-rate, 47% fly-rate, 14% linedrive-rate), that could change pretty quickly. If so, Peavy's numbers could take a nose-dive pretty quickly -- his FIP, at 3.15 is right in line with what you'd predict, but his xFIP is 3.78 and, given the hitter-friendly confines of U.S. Cellular Field, xFIP could be underpredicting his HR/fly-rate.

Kelly's back in the cleanup spot and DH'ing tonight, with Cooper getting the start at first and Omar Vizquel batting 8th. Arencibia has been dropped from 4th to 7th.

Blue Jays

Lawrie, B, 3B
Rasmus, C, CF
Bautista, J, RF
Johnson, K, DH
Cooper, D, 1B
Escobar, Y, SS
Arencibia, J, C
Vizquel, O, 2B
Davis, R, LF

White Sox
De Aza, A, CF
Beckham, G, 2B
Dunn, A, 1B
Konerko, P, DH
Rios, A, RF
Pierzynski, A, C
Viciedo, D, LF
Ramirez, A, SS
Hudson, O, 3B

Finally, this is a public service announcement!

Know your rights:

Number 1: You have the right not to be killed. Murder is a crime, unless it is done by a policeman or an aristocrat. Or one of the B**3 moderators using the banhammer.
Number 2) You have the right to food money and discussion of your fantasy team, providing, of course, you don't mind a little investigation, humiliation, and (if you cross your fingers!) rehabilitation.
Number 3) You have the right to free speech -- as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try talking about illegal streams or posting *.gif images during the game.