Our Friars close out their road trip today as they try to complete the sweep against the White Sox.
A road sweep and happy flight are on the line in today's series finale in Chicago. Our Padres have won four of their last six games while scoring four or more runs each time. That's certainly a huge deal for one of the lowest-scoring offenses in the majors. Hopefully they can continue that trend this afternoon and finish this road trip strong before heading back to San Diego.
Eric Stults will get the ball, returning to the mound at U.S. Cellular Field for the first time since his short stint with the White Sox. The lefty only made two appearances - one as a starter and one as a reliever - for Chicago in 2012. Two days after his relief appearance he was DFA, and after another two days he was claimed by San Diego.
Stults has only one career outing against the White Sox under his belt. He pitched against them back in 2008 as a member of the Dodgers staff. He threw a four-hit shutout en route to a 5-0 Dodgers win. He's had an up-and-down 2014 season so far and he's coming off a couple of starts that were less than impressive. He allowed three runs in each of his last two outings, spanning 9 1/3 innings. He also issued a season-high four walks his last time out, which is more than he had given up in his previous seven starts combined. Overall Stults is 2-3 with a 3.49 ERA on the year.
Meanwhile Chris Sale has been dominating in 2014. The southpaw is 4-0 with a 1.73 ERA this season. A rainout cut his last outing short, but he was dealing, striking out four batters in three shutout innings against Cleveland. He was originally scheduled to pitch tomorrow night against Clayton Kershaw in L.A., but White Sox manager Robin Ventura decided to move his start up a day because of his short outing against the Indians. Chicago hopes Sale can be the answer in helping them avoid a sweep at home at the hands of San Diego. This will be his first time facing the Friars.
Catch the finale of the series this morning at 11:10 PDT and watch our boys get their first sweep of 2014.