New York Yankees vs. Chicago White Sox: Series Preview

The Yankees wrapped up a fairly successful West Coast road trip on Sunday with a victory over the Dodgers. With the win, the Yankees completed a 4-2 run on it, picking up series wins over the Mariners and the Dodgers. Now, they’re set to return home and open up a series against the White Sox tonight.

Chicago has been one of the bigger disappointments in the league this season, as they’ve struggled out of the gate, going 26-35. They have a talented lineup on paper, but as a team they have just an 87 OPS+ on the season. That includes former Yankee and offseason signing Andrew Benintendi, who comes into this series with a 90 OPS+ for the season.

Despite having a record that is a full 10 games worse than the Yankees, the White Sox are technically closer to their division leader than the Bombers. You can thank the total mess that is the AL Central for that.

Before things get going in the three-game set tonight, let’s take a look at the expected pitching matchups for this series.

Tuesday: Clarke Schmidt vs. Lucas Giolito (7:05 pm ET)

Last time out, Schmidt made probably his best start of the season against the Mariners. In 5.2 shutout innings, he allowed just three hits and a walk, while striking out seven. Over the course of May, he had a 3.52 ERA, most of which was dinged by one very bad start against the Rays. Every time the Yankees rotation takes a step towards full strength, something seems to happen which keeps the likes of Schmidt around, but he has shown some more positive signs recently.

With his contract set to expire and Chicago struggling, Giolito is being picked as one of the biggest name pitchers that could be moved by the trade deadline. However for now, he’s still with the White Sox and will face the Yankees in the series opener. Giolito has been struggling somewhat of late, allowing 12 earned runs in 20.2 innings over his last four starts and hasn’t made it past the sixth inning since early May.

Wednesday: TBD vs. Lance Lynn (7:05 pm ET)

This day was going to be Nestor Cortes’ start, but with him hitting the injured list, there’s now an opening. When a situation like this has arisen so far this season, the Yankees have opted to use a spot starter instead of a bullpen game/opener situation. Randy Vásquez’s last start came on Friday, so they could use him on fairly normal rest, likewise with Jhony Brito.

The former Yankee Lynn has really struggled to start the 2023 season. He has three different starts of allowing seven or more runs, and only four times has he given up less than three earned runs. Plus in two of those starts, he’s allowed more than that if you include the unearned runs. The last time the Yankees faced him was in 2021 in the Field of Dreams game. While the Yankees famously lost that day, they did get to Lynn with Judge taking him deep.

Thursday: Luis Severino vs. Mike Clevinger (7:05 pm ET)

On Friday against the Dodgers, Severino had his first subpar start of the season, as he gave up seven runs and three home runs in four innings. His first two starts after coming off the IL were very impressive, so hopefully that performance in LA was just a blip.

Clevinger was a rather controversial signing by the White Sox over the offseason, to put it lightly. Just in strictly on the mound terms, he’s been up and down before an injury kept him out for a couple weeks. He made his return from that on Friday and threw five shutout innings against the Tigers. This will be the first time the Yankees have faced him since August 18, 2019, when he shut them out over five innings, striking out 10.