The White Sox head out on a 7-game road trip starting Monday in Toronto.  They will play four games against the Blue Jays before heading to Kansas City for a 3-game weekend series.  The Sox finished up their last homestand at 5-4 after taking the rubber match from the A’s on Sunday afternoon behind a solid performance from Chris Sale.  They are 62-51 and lead the Central Division by two games over the Tigers.
The Blue Jays come into the series at 54-60, and sit in the cellar of the AL East.  They snapped a five game losing streak with a win Sunday against the Yankees.  They have lost 11 of 14 and have struggled to score runs and have a slew of players on the Disabled List including Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie.  The White Sox and Blue Jays have played six games so far with each team winning three.

Pitching Matchups

I want to apologize for the matchup info from the last series.  The A’s pulled the ole switch-er-roo on me and changed their Saturday and Sunday starters.  We will hope for better luck this time out.

Game 1 will feature Jake Peavy (9-8, 3.08 ERA) against Carlos Villanueva (6-2, 3.30 ERA).  Villanueva will be making his 8th start of the season after being moved into the starting rotation to fill in for the Jays numerous injured pitchers.  Since taking over a starting role Villanueva is 4-2 with a 3.35 ERA with 42 strikeouts and 13 walks in 40.1 innings.  Opponents are hitting .233 off of him as a starter.  He has lost his last 2 starts though giving up 4 runs in 6 innings against Seattle and 3 runs in 6 innings against the Rays.  He has not faced the Sox this year as a starter or a reliever.  In his career against the Sox he has a 5.63 ERA in 8 innings pitched in 3 appearances (1 start).  Only Adam Dunn has seen much of Villanueva and in 23 plate appearances is hitting .286 with a home run.  No other current White Sox player has more than 4 at bats against him.
Peavy is coming off yet another tough luck loss, although he said himself that he needs to be better and doesn’t blame the run support.  Jake went 6.2 innings against the Royals on Tuesday and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits.  He has faced the Blue Jays twice this year and has pitched pretty well.  He is 1-0 with a 2.03 ERA, giving up 3 earned runs in 13.1 innings with 11 strikeouts and 7 walks.  Lifetime against Toronto Peavy is 2-0 with an even 4.00 ERA in 4 starts however in his one career start at the Rogers Centre he was tagged for 7 runs in 5.2 innings and gave up 2 home runs.  None of the current, un-injured members of the Blue Jays have had much success against Peavy and are hitting .208 collectively with just 2 extra base hits.

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Game 2 will have Jose Quintana (4-2, 2.78 ERA) taking on Henderson Alvarez (7-9, 4.58 ERA).  Alvarez has actually managed to remain in the Jays rotation from the start of the season and as you would expect from his record and ERA, has been serviceable.  He has lost his last 2 starts and post All Star break is 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA and has 15 strikeout and 15 walks in 28.1 innings pitched.  Opponents are hitting .301 off Alvarez since the break which is up slightly from the .290 they hit off him before then.  He made one start against the Sox this year back on June 7th in Chicago and went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 7 hits but did not figure in the decision as the Sox eventually won 4-3 on Orlando Hudson’s walk off single.  Alvarez lifetime against the Sox is 0-1 with a 3.21 ERA in 2 starts.  Gordon Beckham and Alejandro De Aza have had the most success off Alvarez in limited plate appearances.  Beckham is 3-7 with a double and De Aza is 3-6 with a double and a walk.  Conversely, Adam Dunn, AJ, Ramirez, Youkilis and Viciedo are a combined 2-29 (.069) with 7 strikeouts against Alvarez.  Tyler Flowers and Alex Rios have one homer each off of Alvarez.
Jose Quintana pitched well last Wednesday in his return after skipping a start.  He once again was given no run support and took the loss giving up 2 runs on 5 hits over 7 innings.  In almost half of his starts this year the Sox have scored 2 runs or less.  He was once again hurt by the long ball giving up a pair of solo home runs that accounted for the two Kansas City runs.  He has given up 2 home runs in 3 of his last 6 starts.
Quintana made one start earlier this year against Toronto and took the loss in a game the White Sox didn’t score any runs (surprise, surprise).  In that game he pitched 6 innings and gave up 2 runs on 9 hits with 1 walk and 1 strikeout.  Quintana showed no signs of fatigue after skipping a start and this will be his first turn in the rotation since then.  The White Sox hope he continues to pitch well as he will be counted on down the stretch to pitch every 5th day.

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Game 3’s scheduled starters are Gavin Floyd (8-9, 4.43 ERA) and Ricky Romero (8-9, 5.32 ERA).  Romero was supposed to be the ace of the Jays staff after winning 15 games and having a sub 3.00 ERA last season but he has not lived up to the billing.  He currently leads the league in earned runs allowed with 85, which are already 12 more earned runs than he gave up all last year.  Romero has lost his last 8 decisions and has an ERA north of 7.00 during that stretch.  He is on pace for his highest walk total and lowest strikeout total of his career, not a good combination. Despite all those numbers he has pitched pretty well against the Sox this year.  In two starts Romero is 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA and has a WHIP of 1.077, his lowest against any team.  He has been tough on the Sox throughout his career as well, 3-1 3.51 ERA in 5 starts and is striking out over 8 Sox batters per 9 innings.  Kevin Youkilis has the most success off Romero hitting .360 with 4 home runs and 6 walks in 33 plate appearances.  Alex Rios has also had success off his former teammate as he is 5-14 (.357) with a double and a home run.  Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham are just 1-23 combined off Romero.
Meanwhile for the Sox Gavin Floyd has been, well very Gavin Floyd lately.  He hasn’t pitched terrible, but he hasn’t pitched well either.  Since coming off the DL Floyd is 1-1 with a 3.96 ERA in 4 starts.  He has walked more batters than he has struck out (17/13) and opponents are hitting .289 off him.  He has induced 6 double plays which have helped him get out of some big jams but he has also hit 4 batters and leads the league in that category.
Floyd has made one start against the Jays this year, which was his last start before the All Star break and subsequent trip to the DL.  In that start he was very good going 7.2 innings without allowing a run and picking up the win.  That is his only career with against the Jays though as he is 1-5 with a 5.82 ERA lifetime against the Blue Jays.  Three of those losses came at the Rogers Centre where he has an ERA north of 8.00 for his career.  The good news for Gavin is that most of the players that have done damage against him are on the shelf.  Only Edwin Encarnacion (3-5, .600) has any success against Floyd among active Jay’s hitters.

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The finale of the four game set will feature Francisco Liriano (3-10, 5.35 ERA) against Aaron Laffey (3-3, 4.72 ERA).  Laffey will be making his 9th start for the Jays after being called up in mid-June.  In his last 4 starts he has allowed at least 4 earned runs while pitching no more than 6 innings.  He made one start against the White Sox in Chicago on July 6th and took the loss allowing 4 runs (3ER) on 8 hits over 6 innings.  Laffey will not overpower hitters (32 K’s in 61 IP), nor will he walk many batters (18 BBs).  He has been prone to giving up the long ball as he averages 1.5 homers per 9 innings.  Lifetime against the Sox Laffey is 3-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 15 appearances (6 starts), most of those coming with the Cleveland Indians.  Alexei Ramirez, Alex Rios and Kevin Youkilis are all hitting .400 or better lifetime against Laffey and AJ Pierzynski has 2 homers in 9 at bats against him.  Adam Dunn is a predictable 0-5 with 4 K’s against the soft tossing lefty.
Francisco Liriano will look to bounce back from a terrible outing against the A’s on Saturday when he toes the rubber Thursday in Toronto.  Liriano is prone to those types of starts but Saturday was the first time he did it as a member of the White Sox.  They need Liriano to pitch like the guy in his first two games with the Sox and not the guy who showed up against Oakland.  Liriano has not faced the Blue Jays this year but has struggled against them in his career.  He is 0-3 with a 5.09 ERA in 4 games (3 starts) against Toronto.  Rajai Davis is 5-14 (.357) with a pair of doubles and Edwin Encarnacion has 2 homers in 4 at bats off Liriano.

Keys to the Series

Banged Up Blue Jays: The Blue Jays have a who’s who of players on the disabled list that includes Jose Bautista, JP Arencibia, Brett Lawrie, Adam Lind, Kyle Drabek, Jason Frasor, Brandon Morrow and Sergio Santos.  In addition to that Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar and Colby Rasmus have all been banged up and missed games in the last series.  The players on the DL have combined for 60 home runs and 182 RBI this year, which is more than a third of Toronto’s total production out of the lineup, and maybe more depending on the state of Rasmus, Johnson and Escobar.  The injuries have affected the pitching staff as well as only 2 pitchers (Romero and Alvarez) have made more than 13 starts.  They have gotten a lift from Casey Janssen who has taken over the closers role from the injured Sergio Santos and the ineffective Francisco Cordero.  Janssen has converted 15 of 16 save opportunities and has a 2.22 ERA to go with 46 strikeouts in 44.2 innings.
The bottom line is that the Jays are banged up and the White Sox need to take advantage.

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SkyDome of Doom: Since the start of the 2007 season the White Sox are 4-16 in their last 20 games played at the Rogers Centre, or the stadium formerly known as SkyDome.  The White Sox last series win at Toronto was August 4th through 6th 2006 when the Sox won 2 out of 3.  Jon Garland and Javy Vazquez picked up the wins in that series for the Pale Hose.  For whatever reason the White Sox struggle in Toronto.  I don’t know if it is the turf, the distances on the wall marked in meters, or the fact that Center is spelled Centre but the Sox just don’t play well north of the border.  This time needs to be different.  As stated in the last section the Sox are catching the Jays at a good time, so it seems like it would be the perfect time to get their first series win in the Great White North in six years.

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Life Without the Captain: The White Sox will be without Paul Konerko for at least the next 4 games.  In his absence the other “middle of the order” players will need to step up.
Adam Dunn has been in a huge slump (see Streakers and Slumpers) and Kevin Youkilis has been banged up a bit too.  Alex Rios has remained hot but will have to start driving in some more runs as he hasn’t had an RBI in his last 7 games, although part of that is that no one has been on base in front of him.  Pierzynski has picked up a lot of the slack and has been great but there is no way he can keep up his current tear.  It would be nice if some of the other players started getting hot and took some of the pressure off the usual middle of the order players, Viciedo and Ramirez I’m looking in your direction.

Outlook

The White Sox could not be playing the Blue Jays at a better time.  They are in a tailspin and have injuries everywhere.  While the Sox are banged up too it is nothing compared to the Blue Jays injury woes.  The Sox need to play well and get the road trip started off on the right foot.  Nothing less than a split is acceptable and really they should win at least three out of four.
On a personal note I believe Tom “Wimpy” Paciorek will be joining Hawk in the booth for the Toronto series as Steve Stone takes a vacation.  For me this is fun because “Hawk and Wimpy” were the broadcast team I grew up listening to on White Sox telecasts.  In addition the White Sox are undefeated in games where Paciorek has filled in for Stoney, so we got that going for us too.

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Posted by GSB! Contributor, Matt Hoeppner.