The road to winning a division in the MLB is never easy. After a tough series with the New York Yankees, the White Sox see themselves matched up with one of the best pitchers in baseball, Tarik Skubal. The game will carry some extra heat for Skubal, as he is making his first home start since an elbow injury earlier this year. Tied atop the AL Central with the Cleveland Guardians, the White Sox need to take advantage of a poor Tigers team to have some breathing room before a critical series with the Guardians early next week.
This series, and more specifically this game, will serve as another good test for a Chicago team that has heightened expectations after a hot start to the year. After going 31-10 over the past two seasons, Skubal has just a 3-3 record this year while his ERA sits at 2.81. After a start in late April against the Atlanta Braves, Skubal had a groundbreaking NanoScope elbow surgery to remove loose bone chips from his elbow. In his first game back against Cleveland last Saturday, he took the loss, falling short of five innings and allowing two earned runs on 80 pitches.
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It will certainly take some time for Skubal to get back to his old self, but that doesn’t mean he’s still not one of the better pitchers in the game. In three starts against the South Siders over the past two seasons, Skubal is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA over 18 innings. As scary of a stat line as that is for the White Sox, there’s plenty of reason for optimism as this year’s team is miles better than they were in 2024 and 2025. If the South Siders can elevate Skubal’s pitch count as the Guardians did, they could easily take the first game of this series.
Sharing the pitching rubber with Skubal is Chicago’s Erick Fedde. While just saying his name would send shivers down the spine of the entire South Side earlier this season, Fedde has legitimately looked like a Cy Young candidate in the month of June. In three outings, Fedde has thrown just less than 13 innings, allowing 11 hits but just one earned run, good for a 0.71 ERA. With two of those outings coming against the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, it’s fair to say that Fedde has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball in June, as blasphemous as that may sound.
It’ll be a fun matchup between two teams that couldn’t come into this game any differently. The Tigers have had some pretty stellar pitching lately, but have scored more than two runs just once in their last five games. On the other hand, the White Sox have struggled to silence their opponents’ bats, allowing just almost seven runs per game over their last five contests.
Here is the starting lineup for your Chicago White Sox:
Grichuk batting second? Well, it’s a small sample size but in 11 plate appearances in his career against Skubal, Grichuk has slashed .364/.364/.455.
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Here is the starting lineup for the Detroit Tigers:
First pitch is 5:40 p.m. CST. You can watch on CHSN or listen on ESPN Chicago 1000. Let us know your thoughts and predictions below!
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