The White Sox have a chance to leave Busch Stadium with a series win on Sunday afternoon, and they’re doing it with a lineup that mostly looks like Saturday’s group.
Chicago is back in action against the St. Louis Cardinals at 1:15 CT, with CHSN carrying the game and ESPN Chicago WMVP 1000 AM on the radio. The White Sox enter at 76-72 after their thrilling win Saturday night, while the Cardinals sit at 73-76.
Will Venable is sticking close to the same formula at the top of the order. Sam Antonacci leads off again after reaching base three times in the last game, and he’s been productive over his last seven contests with a .348/.444/.478 line. Kyle Teel is back in the two-hole after drawing two walks.
Miguel Vargas stays in the third spot even though he’s scuffling. Over his last seven games, he’s hitting just .172/.226/.172 with 10 strikeouts in 29 at-bats. Munetaka Murakami bats cleanup, followed by Andrew Benintendi as the DH.
The notable change comes in right field, where Tristan Peters gets the nod instead of Braden Montgomery. Peters has been quiet lately too, carrying a .091/.259/.136 line over his last seven games, so the move gives Montgomery a breather.
Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery and Brenton Doyle round out the bottom of the lineup, with Colson Montgomery hitting eighth again despite a rough stretch. He’s batting .083/.241/.250 over his last seven games and has struck out 14 times in his last 24 at-bats.
On the season, he has 205 strikeouts, the most in the American League, and that total places him 19th all-time on the single-season list.
Doyle is also in the lineup against a right-hander, which is a rarer look. In 29 games with the White Sox, he’s slashing .214/.214/.339 with two home runs.
St. Louis answers with Bryan Torres leading off, followed by Iván Herrera, Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker. Leo Bernal serves as the DH, Nolan Gorman bats sixth, and Thomas Saggese, Nathan Church and José Fermín finish things out.
The pitching matchup brings David Sandlin to the mound for Chicago after a morning call-up that sent Tyler Schweitzer down. Sandlin has a 6.93 ERA in five games, including three starts, with the White Sox, but he arrives off a sharp run in Triple-A. In his last two starts there, he gave up just one run across 12.2 innings while striking out 20 and walking two.
He’ll face Michael McGreevy, who has worked 28 starts and posted a 3.92 ERA over 154 innings. McGreevy has 106 strikeouts on the year, so he isn’t a big strikeout arm, and he’s also had trouble keeping the ball on the ground.
Over his last seven starts, his ERA sits at 4.97. The White Sox will be looking to cash in on that and take the series.
In Other News...
White Sox Just Lost A Key Voice In Their Draft Pipeline
The White Sox lost a familiar figure in their draft room this week, with Mike Shirley resigning from his job as Director of Amateur Scouting and no longer being with the organization. Shirley had been in that role since 2019, making him a significant part of how Chicago evaluated amateur talent and shaped recent draft plans.
For a team trying to keep building a stronger pipeline, the timing matters because Shirley was directly involved in those strategy conversations and selections. The club has not offered any further detail on the resignation, and Shirley has not commented, leaving one more important front-office transition hanging over a development system that has already been under a microscope. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Suddenly Have A Trust Problem In Their Playoff Push
Luis Castillos latest turn in the rotation offered little relief for a White Sox team trying to steady itself in a tight playoff chase. In Chicagos 6-5 win over the Cardinals, Castillo was tagged for three earned runs in just 2.2 innings, another rough outing in a stretch that has made his late-summer arrival from Seattle feel more like a gamble than a lift. Even with the win, the White Sox had to work through another messy night on the mound while inching their way closer to October.
The timing only adds to the pressure, with the magic number down to 13 and a key series against Cleveland looming. Chicago can see the finish line, but the bigger question is whether it can trust enough of its current pitching mix to get there cleanly. Castillos struggles have become part of that conversation, and every start from here carries more weight as the White Sox try to protect their position. [Read more 🡒]
Randal Grichuk May Have Changed Everything For The White Sox
Randal Grichuk has already given the White Sox a moment they can point to as the kind of swing that can change the mood around a clubhouse. His two-run walk-off homer in a late-season game delivered a 6-5 win and put Chicago back in control of the divisional race, a dramatic finish that underscored why the veteran has mattered since joining the team.
What makes the blast linger is not just the result, but the way it arrived, flipping the game in a hurry and jolting a team still trying to define its season. Whether it becomes the night the White Sox finally settled into a better run or just another sharp memory in a choppy year is still to be seen, but it gave them a needed lift when the margin for error was thin. [Read more 🡒]