Looks like Sox’ Floyd will be a ‘go’ Wednesday
Unless he unexpectedly feels elbow discomfort the next two days, Gavin Floyd is back in the White Sox’ starting rotation.
And Francisco Liriano is out, at least in the Sox’ important series against the Tigers.
Floyd threw a bullpen session, complete with curveballs, on Sunday and a day later the right-hander said he feels good enough to come off the disabled list.
“I didn’t feel any pain where it affected the way I threw,” said Floyd, who has been on the DL since Aug. 27 with a right elbow flexor strain. “It felt good, and I’m excited to see what we come up with.”
While it hasn’t been officially announced, Floyd is most likely to start against Detroit on Wednesday night because he has fared well (7-2, 3.42 ERA) in 19 career starts against the Tigers while Liriano has lately been unable to locate the strike zone.
In his last 3 starts, Liriano has walked 15 in 14 innings while also allowing 10 runs on 16 hits.
“Strikes,” pitching coach Don Cooper said when asked about Liriano’s problem. “This isn’t a demotion. We’re going to have Frankie in the bullpen throughout this series, or at least for the first three games of the series. Obviously, we’ve been going through our bullpen a lot.
“Frankie’s going to wind up going somewhere in the Minnesota series if he’s not used in the bullpen here. Now’s the time we’ve got to think out of the box, got to be flexible, got to see what we’ve got using our people the best way we can to try to win the game each night.”
Chris Sale stays in his regular starting spot Thursday, when he’ll oppose Detroit’s Justin Verlander for the second time in 12 days.
Dunn still out:Adam Dunn sat out his fourth straight game Monday with a strained right oblique.Since he wasn#146;t even able to take batting practice, Dunn figures to be out at least until Wednesday.#147;I think we#146;ll just keep checking on him,#148; manager Robin Ventura said. #147;He has a chance at some point. But again you don#146;t know until he starts moving around, swinging the bat. Then you find out. But right now I know he#146;s not playing.#148;Dunn said he was feeling better Sunday, and Ventura hopes that continues.#147;Today he#146;s day-to-day and tomorrow he#146;ll probably be hour-to-hour,#148; Ventura joked. #147;When we get down to minute-to-minute it will be a lot closer. He has (had an MRI).#147;It#146;s not clean. There#146;s something there, but it#146;s up to the player and how they heal.#148;Walk to the finish:Neither the White Sox nor the Tigers have been playing playoff caliber baseball lately, which comes as no surprise to Sox manager Robin Ventura.#147;That#146;s part of baseball, part of playing a long season,#148; Ventura said. #147;Some teams do it early in the year, some do it in the middle. Everybody has ruts and it#146;s being able to withstand them and keep going.#147;I don#146;t think anybody has the exact reasons why. You can point at a lot of things. If we get a couple hits here and there it#146;s not as bad.#148;Praise for Ventura:Veteran Tigers manager Jim Leyland is impressed with the job counterpart Robin Ventura is doing with the White Sox in his first year on the job.#147;I#146;m jealous,#148; Leyland said. #147;So far, he#146;s made it look easy. He (Ventura) has had a calming influence, probably, after a personality like Ozzie (Guillen), who was great. They won a World Series.#147;Like they say in football, some guys have the nose for the football. Some guys have a nose for managing. I think he (Ventura) does. I think he#146;s done a great job.#148;BBA31512641White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham flips the ball to his bare hand and throws out Detroit Tigers Prince Fielder at first during Mondays sixth inning at U.S. Cellular Field.Associated PressBBABBA31631687Tigers second baseman Omar Infante appears to tag Alejandro De Aza on the head, but De Aza was called safe stealing second by umpire Todd Tichenor, during the first inning Monday at U.S. Cellular Field.Associated PressBBA