Gamethread: Braves at White Sox

With Mother Nature standing by to ruin the fun

If the White Sox and Braves can play as quickly as the Sox and Tigers did on Thursday, they just might get a game in today. The storms now aren’t due until about 3 p.m., and rain, wintry mix, snow and probably even brimstone are then set through the rest of the three-game series.

Of course, after the White Sox were swept by a mediocre team to start the year, facing the Braves may be a stormy situation even without the prognosticated return to winter.

Trying to stymie one of the toughest lineups in baseball (maybe the toughest) will be free agent acquisition Chris (Upon re-) Flexen, who was dumped by the Rockies after going 2-4 with a 6.27 ERA for them in the latter part of last season ... after he was dumped by the Mariners for going 0-4 with a 7.71 ERA for them. Those numbers are in line with the righthander’s 6.75 career ERA against Atlanta.

Tossing for the Braves will be righty Charlie Morton, still going strong at the age of 40. Morton did issue the most walks in his long career last year, 83 in 163 innings, but still managed 14 wins and a 3.64 ERA, helped by 183 strikeouts.

Morton will face a White Sox lineup without DH Eloy Jiménez, who strained an adductor yesterday while running to first, an activity that often has proven to be outside his skill set. He hasn’t been put on the IL yet, but Lenyn Sosa has flown in from Charlotte just in case, because doesn’t every team replace its designated hitter with a utility infielder sporting a career .186 average?

For today, though, it’s Gavin Sheets who will take the DH slot.

Flexen takes on an Atlanta lineup that is, well, Atlanta, and sports a .339 batting average and .961 OPS in the early going (the Sox are hitting .182, if you’d like context).

First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. Central, as we see how many innings they can get in before the deluge. Usual broadcast suspects.