The White Sox return to US Cellular Field Monday for the first time since the All Star break having finished 3-7 on their 10 game road trip that culminated in a sweep at the hands of the now first place Detroit Tigers.
The Twins come in having just taken two of three from the Royals in Kansas City, but are just 4-6 since the All Star break having been swept by Oakland and splitting a 4 game set with Baltimore.

Starting Pitchers

The White Sox will pitch Gavin Floyd (fresh off the DL), Jose Quintana and Jake Peavy in that order. The Twins will counter with Francisco Liriano, Cole De Vries and Nick Blackburn.

Since moving back into the rotation Liriano is 5-5 with a 2.84 ERA in 10 starts, including a win over the Sox in Minnesota on June 28th. He has struck out 77 batters in a 63.1 innings and opponents are hitting just .171 off him. He appears to be returning to the form that made him one of the AL’s top left handers before he had Tommy John surgery.
De Vries has made 7 starts since being called in late May when he made his Major League debut against the Sox where he was tagged for 6 runs (3ER) in 5 innings, including giving up 3 homers. He has pitched well for the Twins with the exception of a start against the A’s where he gave up 7 runs in 5 innings. He is susceptible to giving up the long ball, as he’s let up 10 HRs in 41 innings.
Blackburn has struggled all season with an ERA of 7.46 and an opponent’s batting average of .327. However his last start was a good one against the Royals, he went 6.2 innings giving up just 1 run on 7 hits with no walks. In his lone appearance against the Sox this year he gave up 6 runs in 5 innings and took the loss.
So, here are my keys to the series…

Floyd’s Return

Gavin Floyd will return to the White Sox to pitch Monday after a stint on the DL. It has been an up and down season for Floyd but he showed signs of turning the corner before the All Star break. He gave up just 4 runs in his last 4 starts before the break, all of those coming in his start against the Yankees.

The Sox will need him to pitch like that and help stabilize a starting rotation that has been banged up and a little shaky. Floyds has had two starts against the Twins this year and they couldn’t be more opposite. He took a loss back in May giving up 9 runs in 3.2 innings but then pitched 7 shutout innings a little more than a month later and got the win striking out 9 without walking anyone. Let’s hope for good Gavin on Monday.

Wake up the bats

The Sox offense has struggled of late, scoring 3 runs or less in 7 of their last 10 games. They have also stopped hitting with runners in scoring position, something they had done very well up to that point. Other than Liriano the Sox aren’t seeing great starting pitching in this series, and the Twins bullpen hasn’t been great either.
The Sox bats need to wake up and it starts with the middle of the order. Youkilis, Dunn and Konerko struggled in the Detroit series and without production from those guys, runs are tough to come by. Alejandro De Aza seemed to snap out of his slump a little, it would be nice to see him get on and the Sox try and manufacture some runs.

Home Cooking

The White Sox are 8-2 in their last 10 games at home. While they started out the season with a terrible home record, the Cell has been much friendly to the home team lately. The Sox should be glad to be home after that tough trip and hopefully getting back to Chicago will cure what ails them.
This is only a 3 game homestand, if you can call it that, before they head back out on the road for 6 games. The fans need to rally behind the team and help lift them out of their slump and the Sox need to take advantage of this series against one of the league’s worst teams.

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Posted by GSB! Contributor, Matt Hoeppner.