The north side will take on the south side, as Tuesday presents baseball fans with the first of a two-game set between the Chicago Cubs (39-32) and visiting Chicago White Sox (34-36).
The Cubs enter the series with a 24-11 record at Wrigley Field. That gives Chicago the best home record in the National League Central division, but the Cubs still trail the first-place Milwaukee Brewers (40-32) by a half-game.
The White Sox come into this series with a 14-19 record on the road. The south-siders currently rank third in the American League Central division, and 12.5 games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins (47-24).
Tuesday’s game will be shown on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT. The scheduled pitchers for Tuesday are Cole Hamels for the Cubs and Ivan Nova for the White Sox.
Road Struggles
The Cubs enter this series after losing three out of four games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their lone victory came on Saturday thanks to a ninth-inning two-run homer by Anthony Rizzo to lift the Cubs over the Dodgers 2-1.
This is certainly a team that fares better playing at home, but what makes this upcoming series against the White Sox most interesting is both sides will be represented by their home fans.
Up And Down
The White Sox are also coming off a four-game series, splitting a four-game set against the New York Yankees. The Sox outscored the Yanks 15-6 in the first two games but got outscored 18-7 in the final two games of the series.
Injury Bug
The Cubs will be without Kyle Hendricks for about a month after the team placed him on the 10-day IL with a shoulder injury. This came two days after the Cubs placed reliever Carl Edwards Jr. on the 10-day IL with a shoulder injury.
Some positive news for Cubs fans is that recently acquired closer Craig Kimbrel could see some action after spending time in Triple-A Iowa. The club wants to get him into around five games before he joins the big league team.
The White Sox have catcher Wellington Castillo and third baseman Yoan Moncada sidelined for the time being. The team has yet to finalize a return date for either player, but the Sox have been scoring enough runs to get by thanks to Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, and former Cubs outfielder Eloy Jimenez.
The 22-year-old Jimenez is slugging a .247 batting average in his rookie season for the Sox. He has clubbed 11 homers and 25 RBI in 46 games on the year. Jimenez was dealt by the Cubs in the 2017 season when they acquired pitcher Jose Quintana from the Sox.
Quintana, now in his 10th season, has had a decent start to the year for the Cubs. Quintana has so far posted a record of 4-6 with a 3.87 ERA in 14 games started.
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