Chicago White Sox vs. Oakland Athletics (10:05 pm ET, WGN)
Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics duel it out in Game 1 (10:05 pm ET, WGN), on Friday, at the Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California. The White Sox have a 52-42 home, 25-23 away record whereas the Athletics have a 48-47 away, 28-21 home record.
Against the A’s, Mark Buehrle will try to end his struggles and get the first-place. To the three-game set Friday night, Chicago White Sox off to a good start. From 2001-2007, against the A’s, Chicago (52-42) dropped 27 of 33 road games.
Buehrl with a 4.95 ERA in 10 career starts there has gone 0-6. 2-year-old Yankee Stadium and Target Field are the only other AL parks in which Buehrle has failed to win. In 20 overall starts against the A’s, he is 3-12 with a 4.11 ERA.
In the Twins series, Chicago bounced back against Seattle to take two of three and to improve to 3-4 on its trip, although in the series Chicago dropped three of four. On Wednesday, as the White Sox lost 2-1, Bobby Jenks allowed two runs in the 11th inning. In the ninth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Twins on Sunday, he gave up four runs. Jenks could be replaced by Matt Thornton, J.J. Putz and Sergio Santos.
Lately for the A’s, pitching has not been a problem. While winning seven of eight, the team has posted a 2.34 ERA. On Wednesday, Oakland defeated Boston 6-4. From a bruised right hand, Carlos Quentin is expected to return. On the White Sox, the outfielder is second, with 19 homers and 64 RBIs and he has not played since Sunday.
Oakland and Chicago have split their past 18 meetings.
