Covey making late pitch to start for Chicago White Sox next season
With Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito in and Michael Kopech out until 2020 following last week's Tommy John surgery, the Chicago White Sox still are going to need two starting pitchers to fill out their rotation next season.
Dylan Covey is making a late push to claim one of the spots.
"We've talked about the action he has on his pitches," manager Rick Renteria said. "He's taking advantage of the opportunity to start and see if he can really harness and understand what he's capable of doing out there."
Taking the mound at Cleveland last Wednesday, Covey pitched 6 shutout innings against the AL Central champions.
Covey faced Cleveland again Monday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, and the 27-year-old righty pitched 6 shutout innings again.
The effort wasn't enough in a 4-0 loss to the Indians.
"It's definitely a confidence booster for me," Covey said. "I've known all year I have the stuff. It's just finding the consistency with it. I feel good. Got one more start to try to finish off the year strong and we'll see what happens."
Corey Kluber (20-7) started for Cleveland and showed why he is pushing for his third Cy Young Award. The right-hander scattered 4 hits and had 11 strikeouts over 7 innings.
Kluber finished the season with a 4-0 record against the Sox. He also had a 0.96 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 28 innings.
Striking distance:
Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada leads the major leagues with 210 strikeouts, which is only 13 behind the record Arizona's Mark Reynolds set in 2009.
Moncada didn't play in Monday night's game against Cleveland.
"Just a little bit of a day off for him," manager Rick Renteria said. "Let him enjoy what he's been doing. Let him kind of pay attention to what's going on for the ballgame today and then get back after it."
Despite the high strikeout total, Moncada has reached base safely in 26 of his last 30 games. He also needs 2 doubles to become the fifth player in White Sox history, age 23 or younger, to reach 30 doubles, 15 home runs and 60 RBI in a season.
Done for season?
Jose Abreu missed his seventh straight game Monday with a right-thigh infection. With only six games remaining on the schedule, it's looking more and more like the White Sox's all-star first baseman is done for the season.
"He's still healing," Rick Renteria said. "He's got a significant opening there that's got to close up. We'll see how he manages it and as we move forward here in the next couple days."