Tigers vs. White Sox Prediction
The Chicago White Sox are in a heated battle against the Cleveland Guardians and Minnesota Twins for the AL Central. Can they take down the Detroit Tigers in the first game of the weekend series?
Let’s see what the MLB odds tell us at the top sportsbooks!
Detroit Tigers vs. Chicago White Sox
Friday, August 12, 2022, 7:10 PM ET at Guaranteed Rate Field
The Detroit Tigers will travel to Chicago to take the White Sox in the first game of the weekend series.
The White Sox are currently in a heated race for the American League Central, competing against the Guardians and Twins. It’s anyone’s race two-thirds of the way through the season.
However, the two teams that don’t win the division might not even make the playoffs and land a Wild Card spot.
Every game is massive at this point. Can the White Sox shut down the Tigers in tonight’s game? Here are our picks and predictions for the first game of the series.
The Pitching Match-Up
Daniel Norris will take the hill for the Tigers. He’s got an 0-4 record with a 6.90 ERA on the season. He’s only thrown 30 innings on the year and made his last outing against the Mets with the Cubs on July 16.
It’s now August 11 and he’s with a new team. Norris had been with the Tigers for a longer period of time before his days in Chicago. So at least he’s familiar with everything there. He’s still been very bad this season and I’m not sure things will change for him in Detroit.
Let’s just point out that Norris was never stretched out for the Cubs during the season. I highly doubt he’ll be pitching deep into this game.
Meanwhile, Michael Kopech will get the start for the White Sox. He’s a right-handed pitcher with a 4-8 record along with a 3.38 ERA on the season.
Kopech has a 5.65 xFIP in the last 30 days and has only struck out 14.4% of batters in the last 30 days. He’s also walked 11.1% of batters and hasn’t been nearly as good as he was earlier this season.
Who has the more Favorable Lineup?
The White Sox have struggled against lefties in the last 30 days. The projected lineup will have all righties, yet only Luis Robert and Andrew Vaughn have really hit lefties consistently recently. Robert just came back from an injury and hasn’t even faced that many lefties since returning but has still dominated the ones he’s seen.
Norris might get through this White Sox lineup one time. But I fear that the second time he tries to pitch against this White Sox lineup, he’s going to get destroyed. Chicago still has many power sluggers that can tee off of Norris if he pitches as he had been with the Cubs.
Meanwhile, the Tigers have been pathetic against righties, hitting a .080 ISO and a wOBA of .231 in the last 30 days. Because of this performance, the Tigers fired their General Manager.
The Twins have struck out 29% of the time in the last 30 days against righties and have walked just 4.3% of the time. It’s been so ugly.
Game Prediction
When it comes to the Tigers, you can never trust that production will come out of this lineup. Only Harold Castro has a wOBA of above.280 in this lineup for the Tigers. Things look dreadful for this group as they continue to strike out at a ridiculous rate.
I know Kopech hasn’t earned a high amount of strikeouts in the last 30 days, but he’s still very capable of earning strikeouts. The Tigers should flail many times and help Kopech earn more strikeouts than his last 30 days average.
On the other hand, as I suggested, the White Sox have the better lineup. They haven’t been great against lefties but should have a full lineup of righties ready to tee off against Daniel Norris, who has a 6.90 ERA through 30 innings this season.
Chicago is sometimes hit or miss but when they face bad pitching, they’ll hit.
The Pick
I’ll trust the White Sox in this matchup and take them on the runline. The White Sox should be able to get multiple runs off Norris early. That will be enough knowing that Kopech is very capable of earning a high strikeout rate.
He’s been below-average recently but should be able to turn things around against the worst offense in baseball.
With my MLB Pick of the Day, I’m taking the White Sox at -1.5 on the runline, at home. It’s sitting at -115. I like it.
MLB Pick: White Sox -1.5 (-115) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)