Bauer will go for another triple-digit performance Wednesday night when Cleveland (35-30) visits Chicago (23-42) for the third contest of a four-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field. The teams have split the series’ first two games, with the Indians posting a 4-0 victory Monday and the White Sox bouncing back for a 5-1 win Tuesday.
It is not impossible for the White Sox to beat Bauer, but the challenge will be steep.
The right-hander is 5-4 with a 2.62 ERA in 13 starts this season. He has walked 29 and struck out 109 in 86 innings. He has registered double-digit strikeouts in each of his past three outings and in five starts overall this season.
No wonder Indians manager Terry Francona has left Bauer in the game for 100-plus pitches in every start this year.
“I just don’t see a reason (to pull him),” Francona said to the Plain Dealer. “I just feel he deserves to stay out there.”
In 14 career games (12 starts) against the White Sox, Bauer is 6-2 with a 3.55 ERA. He has fanned 89 in 76 innings.
The White Sox will counter with right-hander Dylan Covey (2-1, 2.22 ERA), who has emerged as an early bright spot during a rebuilding season. The 26-year-old struggled badly as a rookie in 2017, but he has looked much better since being promoted from Triple-A Charlotte in late May. He has not allowed an earned run in either of his past two starts.
In three career games (one start) against Cleveland, Covey is 0-0 with a 3.68 ERA.
Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor will try to stay hot at the plate after going 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles Tuesday. The 24-year-old has a team-leading 23 doubles to go along with 14 home runs and 35 RBIs.
Five Indians players already have double-digit home runs. Jose Ramirez leads the group with 19, while Edwin Encarnacion (16) and Lindor (14) round out the top three. Yonder Alonso and Michael Brantley have 11 apiece.
Chicago is led in homers by Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson, who each have 11.
White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu will look for another strong game as he tries to strengthen his case to be a starter in the All-Star Game at Nationals Park. The 31-year-old is hitting .286 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs Josh Oliver Jersey , and his 25 doubles lead the club.
A second All-Star appearance would be special for Abreu.
“It will be excellent because we play this game for the fans,” Abreu said via an interpreter to mlb.com. “To have the honor to represent them, and they know what I’m doing, that is really big. If that happens, I would be really happy.”
The future is back.
Twenty years ago, Ken Griffey Jr. and the Seattle Mariners‘ marketing department put on one of the most memorable promotions in franchise history — which is saying a lot, since Funny Nose Glasses Night in 1982 drew more fans than Gaylord Perry’s 300th win two nights earlier — with Turn Ahead the Clock Day.
Instead of wearing retro uniforms like most teams do for Turn Back the Clock Day, the Mariners imagined what things might look like in 2027, when they will celebrate their 50th anniversary.
The Kingdome was turned into the “Biodome.” A DeLorean drove actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on “Star Trek,” to the mound to deliver the ceremonial first pitch.
The Mariners’ Moose mascot was replaced by Marty the Mariners Martian. Griffey was referred to as “Digit 24” instead of his last name by the public-address announcer.
According to Kevin Martinez, the marketing director for the Mariners in 1998, it was Griffey’s idea to change the Mariners’ colors from navy, teal and white to crimson, black and silver. Junior wore his hat backward and spray-painted his glove and spikes silver.
“There were always some surprises,” Griffey recently told The Athletic. “You never knew what was going to happen that night. It was like, ‘Stay tuned.'”
Twenty years later, the Mariners and Royals will reprise Turn Ahead the Clock Night when they meet Saturday night at Safeco Field.
Royals outfielder Jorge Bonifacio is certainly looking to the future after making his season debut in Friday night’s 4-1 loss to the Mariners.
Bonifacio missed the first 80 games of the season while serving a Major League Baseball suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug in spring training.
“I’m so excited to be back with the team,” said Bonifacio Ryquell Armstead Jersey , who batted .255 and hit 17 home runs as a rookie last season.
Bonifacio batted .392 in 13 games for Triple-A Omaha before being activated. He batted fifth Friday, going 0-for-3.
“We’re glad to have him back,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He was swinging very well (at Omaha).
“I mean, the kid hit 17 homers last year. … Yeah, he was going to hit in the middle of the order, until all this surfaced.”
Bonifacio played left field Friday to give Alex Gordon a day off, but likely will be in right field Saturday.
“We are going to move him around. He’s going to play,” Yost said. “He’s going to play some right, play some left. What difference does it make?”
On the mound, right-handers Jason Hammel of the Royals (2-9, 5.34 ERA) and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (7-6, 5.10) will be looking for vintage performances.
Hammel http://www.jaguarsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-gardner-minshew-ii-jersey , who won 15 games for the World Series champion Chicago Cubs in 2016, has lost four straight starts — in which the Royals have scored a total of five runs. The graduate of South Kitsap High School in nearby Port Orchard, Wash., is 3-3 with a 3.53 ERA in eight career appearances against Seattle, including seven starts.
Hernandez, the American League’s 2010 Cy Young Award winner, is 6-6 with a 3.15 ERA in 15 career starts against the Royals. That includes an 8-3 victory on April 10 in Kansas City in which he pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and six hits.