5 minutes ago, HeGetzUs said:

Soooo why not let Fedde go in game 1? Really gonna trust Sandlin in the playoff opener….eek

Sandlin starts incredibly strong before tailing off it seems. Just piggyback them. Just need guys who can get outs throughout the game. All hands on deck whenever needed.

3 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Game 1, 5 p.m. ET Tuesday (PCK/NBCSN): David Sandlin (CWS) vs. Peter Lambert (HOU)
Game 2 5 p.m. ET Wednesday (PCK/NBCSN): Sean Burke (CWS) vs. Hunter Brown (HOU)
Game 3, TBD*: Davis Martin (CWS) vs. Hayden Wesneski (HOU)
(*if necessary)

is this official?

Peter Lambert did pitch 2 innings yesterday so I would assume he wouldn't be long for a game. We have to win game 1 to have a chance IMO. Brown and Wesneski are tough pitchers

We are stronger against RHP than LHP, so that’s one plus for us. My ideal lineup this week would be the following. Figures below are wRC+ vs. RHP on a full season basis and then just the last two months.

1. S. Antonacci, LF (132 | 107)

2. K. Teel, C (117 | 135)

3. M. Vargas, 3B (126 | 138)

4. M. Murakami, 1B (138 | 82)

5. A. Benintendi, DH (105 | 78)

6. T.Peters, CF (125 | 133)

7. B. Montgomery, RF (117 | 120)

8. C. Meidroth, 2B (90 | 71)

9. C. Montgomery, SS* (78 | 49)

Need to be careful with getting too platoon crazy once the Astros move to the bullpen. Antonacci & Peters have been hitting LHP fairly well as of late and shouldn’t be pinch hit for unless it’s late in the game and ideally with multiple guys on base. Braden is our weakest player against LHP, so the leash can be shorter there.

Grichuk should be saved for biggest PH opportunity against LHP and not just Benintendi’s replacement. I actually hope they find a way to keep Pham on the roster to PH for Andrew if the time comes. Doyle should be late game defensive replacement PH option for Braden if Grichuk has already been used. Acuna should remain as mostly a pinch runner weapon and defensive replacement if one of the stronger RH bats pinch hits for Colson.

14 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Why can't we be one of the three worst teams ever to win a World Series?

Let's small sample our way to shocking the world, starting with Ron's guy Sandlin getting lefties out for the first time all year... then a good old fashion Sean Burke shove fest.

Just stopping in to say Go Sox! Nothing I'd enjoy more than listening to hundreds of people and talking heads tell us how we didn't deserve to win it all this year!

Sandlin has been getting LH batters out really well since his last call up. 0.93 FIP and +11 K/9 is awesome, although obviously small sample size. I’d rather roll the dice on him leading things off for us this post season than Fedde.

Sounds like ill be going to game 2 so that's at least a good pitching matchup.

20 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Why can't we be one of the three worst teams ever to win a World Series?

Let's small sample our way to shocking the world, starting with Ron's guy Sandlin getting lefties out for the first time all year... then a good old fashion Sean Burke shove fest.

Just stopping in to say Go Sox! Nothing I'd enjoy more than listening to hundreds of people and talking heads tell us how we didn't deserve to win it all this year!

Well well. Look who decided to crawl out of their hole and show face. Get the hell out of here!

But agreed. Sandlin will shock the world with a dominant start.

Edited 31 minutes ago31 min by ron883

7 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Sandlin has been getting LH batters out really well since his last call up. 0.93 FIP and +11 K/9 is awesome, although obviously small sample size. I’d rather roll the dice on him leading things off for us this post season than Fedde.

Yeah, Sandlin has looked really good. Just keep him on a short leash. He has a tendency to look good then everything falls apart.

nice, I was hoping they would start sandlin

2 minutes ago, ron883 said:

Yeah, Sandlin has looked really good. Just keep him on a short leash. He has a tendency to look good then everything falls apart.

guessing he will only go 3 max

1 minute ago, ron883 said:

Yeah, Sandlin has looked really good. Just keep him on a short leash. He has a tendency to look good then everything falls apart.

He's got really good stuff, outside of Hagen I think I'm most excited about Sandlin as a future rotation piece.

Definitely need a short leash with him if he pitches this week though so there is no repeat of the Detroit game a couple weeks ago.

3 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Game 1, 5 p.m. ET Tuesday (PCK/NBCSN): David Sandlin (CWS) vs. Peter Lambert (HOU)
Game 2 5 p.m. ET Wednesday (PCK/NBCSN): Sean Burke (CWS) vs. Hunter Brown (HOU)
Game 3, TBD*: Davis Martin (CWS) vs. Hayden Wesneski (HOU)
(*if necessary)

Houston has the clear pitching advantage in all three games, but each one is definitely winnable. Let’s do this s%*#.

34 minutes ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Why can't we be one of the three worst teams ever to win a World Series?

Let's small sample our way to shocking the world, starting with Ron's guy Sandlin getting lefties out for the first time all year... then a good old fashion Sean Burke shove fest.

Just stopping in to say Go Sox! Nothing I'd enjoy more than listening to hundreds of people and talking heads tell us how we didn't deserve to win it all this year!

Yes -- let's be the travesty that forces baseball to change its playoff format!

3 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Game 1, 5 p.m. ET Tuesday (PCK/NBCSN): David Sandlin (CWS) vs. Peter Lambert (HOU)
Game 2 5 p.m. ET Wednesday (PCK/NBCSN): Sean Burke (CWS) vs. Hunter Brown (HOU)
Game 3, TBD*: Davis Martin (CWS) vs. Hayden Wesneski (HOU)
(*if necessary)

wait, where are you seeing this?

edit: https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/mlb-wild-card-preview-series-predictions-x-factors-and-more-for-red-sox-yankees-cubs-padres-phillies-braves-and-white-sox-astros-001627858.html

Edited 14 minutes ago14 min by joejoesox

If you're using 3 starters (no bullpen games) and it's a short 3-game series anyway, do you carry 9 relievers (12 pitchers total) and an extra bench bat like Pham the first round?

Astros will be going with a bullpen game for game 1.

Davis Martin.... oh boy

On 9/26/2026 at 8:49 PM, Colome's Hat said:

Think if we win the wild card, we'll get to the ALCS. Momentum goes a long way

Sox have been pretty steady one way or another since the bad start ended. They rarely have any momentum winning or losing. Unfortunately the bad string of games when the Sox got to 9 games over .500 made then drop to only 2 games above. They recovered to go 7-3 in their last 10 to finish 6 games above but that bad stretch along with Cleveland having a really good final 35 game stretch going 24-11 was our downfall for not winning the Division.

Hitting went through a bad stretch, pitching too with fatigue/ minor inuries being a factor. Colson still in a huge slump. It's been a while since Peters and Antonacci hit a HR. Beni ended his little HR drought in the last game and Mune has leveled up finally. I just don't feel as strongly about hitting RHP as I used to. But I think it's improved against LHP with Grichuk still being crazy good and Doyle surging. Not sure Pham will make the playoff roster for the Wild Card series since Houston is a RH starting pitching dominant .

Some guys are just going to have to step up. Seems like when we lose in the playoffs the hitting falters most. But if we can win some close games while scoring 4-8 runs we have a shot to beat them. Our relief pitching has to hold a lead once we get one.

None of our pitching matchups have been announced yet. It was a prediction posted as fact and now everyone's runnin with it lol.

10 minutes ago, joejoesox said:

wait, where are you seeing this?

Excellent question - is this from an actual source or more copy/pasted AI slop?

On 9/27/2026 at 5:04 AM, Buehrle>Wood said:

Does optioning players down matter at all today? I wouldnt think so. I would call up Thorpe, Cannon, McDougal and Smith and option whoever you can.

I'd be totally shocked if they called up any of them especially McDougal since he walked the world in his only appearance. The bullpen started to get better once guys like Hagen and Hicks stopped walking so many guys.

5 minutes ago, DoUEvenShift said:

None of our pitching matchups have been announced yet. It was a prediction posted as fact and now everyone's runnin with it lol.

the yahoo article isn't official?

21 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Until now - last I looked we beat them to win the series back in 05 - now we will beat them to start our road to this years title!!!

I like it. Last four series of the year against a team from Houston, a late-surging Cleveland squad, Boston, and a team from LA. (Just a slightly different order)!