After two straight walk-off homers, the Cleveland Baseball Club can finish the sweep of the Chicago White Sox with a win Thursday.
A Jose Ramirez walk-off home run on Tuesday sent the Cleveland Baseball Club to the playoffs. Jordan Luplow followed on Wednesday with a walk-off home run of his own Wednesday. Cleveland has a chance to complete the four game sweep of the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.
Zach Plesac will start for Cleveland and has a mostly good track record against the White Sox. The group of Edwin Encarnacion, Yasmani Grandal, Eloy Jimenez, Nomar Mazara, Luis Robert, and Yolmer Sanchez are 5-39 combined with 13 strikeouts. Adam Engel is 2-7 with a double, but has struck out twice. Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada are both 2-9 with a double each. Tim Anderson is 3-9 including a home run. Chicago has mostly struggled outside of Anderson and a few players batting in the .200’s. A repeat performance for Zach Please on the mound is entirely possible.
Like Zach Plesac, Chicago’s starter Dallas Keuchel has kept several batters silent when facing Cleveland. Cesar Hernandez and Sandy Leon have combined to go 0-9 with 2 strikeouts. Francisco Lindor is 2-12 with a walk. The player with the most at-bats against Keuchel is Delino DeSheilds and it isn’t pretty. DeShields is 9-40 with 2 doubles and 1 home run, but has struck out 10 times. The three best bats in the lineup when facing Keuchel are Franmil Reyes, Jose Ramirez, and Carlos Santana. Reyes has hits in both of his at-bats against the White Sox starter and has walked once. Ramirez is 5-12 with 3 doubles and Santana is 4-15 with a solo homer. Cleveland will need to channel all of their recent offensive success in order to come out with a win Thursday.
