Cubs vs. White Sox: Series Thread (Games 25-27)

Despite falling off a blistering pace this last week, the Cubs fought to hold their ground. They can now proudly welcome their south side rivals with a superior 16-8 record to the White Sox's 15-11. Still, this Sox team is no collection of slouches. They have entered their competitive window, and the Cubs will now have to face some young stars entering their primes.

Game 1, Friday, Aug. 21, 7:15pmCDT
CHC: LHP Jon Lester (2-0, 2.74 ERA)
CHW: LHP Dallas Kechel (3-2, 3.07 ERA)

Lester allowed five earned runs to the Brewers but walked away without a decision after six innings pitched last round. The bright side is that his strikeouts are trending up, following a 3-game stretch of feasting almost exclusively off of weak contact. Veteran Edwin Encarnacion has taken him yard 3 times but also struck out 10 times, earning himself a .781 OPS in 49 at-bats.

Fellow vet. Dallas Keuchel's 2020 has been much like Lester's so far. He's held run scoring to a reasonable level while striking out very few opponents and counting on his defense to cut off balls in play. Last time out he defeated the Cardinals in 5.2 innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out only 1 batter along the way. Jason Kipnis and Josh Phegley have 46 ABs total agianst Keuchel and that's all I have to say about that. Rizzo has a homerun and a single and has not struck out yet in 7 ABs against Dallas.

Game 2, Saturday, Aug. 22, 7:15pmCDT
CHC: RHP Kyle Hendricks (3-2, 3.31 ERA)
CHW: RHP Dylan Cease (4-1, 3.16 ERA)

Kyle Hendricks took a loss to the Cardinals last time out, but he probably deserved better. He allowed three earned runs and struck out 5 in 6.1 innings pitched. Jose Abreu has a .563 OBP in 14 ABs against him and Eloy Jimenez has gone yard once in 2 at-bats.

Former Cubs farm-hand Dylan Cease is off to a very fortunate start this season. He owns a 4-1 record and a -0.1 fWar. The 24-year-old righty has allowed a 1.36 WHIP while striking out only 15.4% of opposing batters. His opponent BABIP is low, but his hard hit rate is inflated compared to last year and his GB% has dropped. Saturday would be a great time for regression to begin. In the plus (or plus-plus) column for Cease is velocity: he's averaging over 97mph on fastball this year. No current Cubs have faced him at the MLB level.

Game 3, Sunday, Aug. 3, 1:20pmCDT
CHC: RHP Yu Darvish (4-1, 1.80 ERA)
CHW: TBD

The Yu Darish story has been very easy to tell for the last year: He's really good. He worked around 8 hits in his last start to hold the cardinals to 1 run over 6 innings. Striking out 7 helped. Among current White Sox, only Edwin Encarnacion has faced him more than 5 times. He has a 1.059 OPS in 22 ABs.