Game 2 preview:
Carlos Carrasco attempts to even the series after the Guardians were shut down by Fedde Mercury in the opener. Carlos has had his ups and downs this year but is coming off his best start of the season, going six innings against the Angels and allowing just one run. In his previous two starts he allowed 13 runs and five homers. Hopefully we'll get the guy we saw against the Angels and not the one from the previous two starts.
Current White Sox batters are hitting .312 against Carlos. Tommy Pham, who is swinging the bat really well at the moment, is 6-for-11. Eloy Jimenez is 3-for-4 and Andrew Benintendi is 3-for-9 with 4 RBI's.
Carlos has a 5.67 ERA on the year. He'll be facing lefty Garrett Crochet, 2-4, 5.31 ERA. Crochet is a 24-year-old with a 5-11, 3.64 ERA for his career. In his last two starts he went 11 innings allowing three runs. He has 53 strikeouts against 9 walks in 41 innings. At 6'6", 245 he is an imposing figure. He has allowed eight home runs, all to right-handed hitters. Lefties are hitting .143/.393 off him. His home ERA is much better at 3.57.
Will Brennan is hitting .345 in May. The Guardians have some hitters who have done well against lefties this year starting with David Fry (.417/1.261). Josh Naylor is hitting .294/1.045 against lefties. Arias is hitting .333/.810 - a massive improvement over last year. Jose is hitting .293/.860. Florial is 3-for-8 with two doubles.
As a team the Guardians are hitting .263/.773 against lefties versus .231/.678 against right-handers. It's shocking they are over 100 OPS lower against righties considering how many left-handed hitters they have.
The Guardians really missed Steven Kwan in their 3-2 loss in the opener. Rocchio hit leadoff and was 0-for-4.
The Guardians are now 1.5 games ahead of the Twins and Royals.