Boston just took 3 straight from the Angels. Now it heads into a White Sox team that's quietly become one of baseball's better stories this summer.
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Davis Martin's season-long body of work (9-3, 3.08 ERA) still outweighs one bad walk-heavy start, and he's throwing at home for a team that's playing its best baseball in years. Boston's rotation is in genuine crisis mode with 4 starters on the 60-day IL, which is the kind of thing that catches up to a team even when the bats are hot. Backing the White Sox here is backing the more stable roster, full stop.
Jake Bennett (3-3, 3.10 ERA) gets the ball for Boston off one of his best starts of the year, and he draws Davis Martin (9-3, 3.08 ERA), who's been Chicago's rotation anchor all season despite a shaky final tune-up. First pitch is 6:40 PM CT on Wednesday, July 8, the middle game of a 3-game set.
The bigger story in Boston isn't the rotation's top of the order, it's what's missing from it. Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Johan Oviedo are all on the 60-day IL, and Ranger Suarez left his last outing early with adductor tightness after allowing 3 earned runs in 2.2 innings. Interim manager Chad Tracy is piecing together a staff on the fly, and the lineup isn't much healthier with Roman Anthony, Triston Casas, Trevor Story, Marcelo Mayer and Isiah Kiner-Falefa all out. Chicago has its own bumps and bruises, but nothing at the level of Boston's rotation crisis.
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None of that stopped the Red Sox from taking all 3 in Anaheim, outscoring the Angels 20-8 across the sweep. That's a real turnaround from getting outscored 18-3 across 2 losses to Washington the week before. Whether that carries over against a White Sox team playing meaningful games in July is the whole question here.
Chicago's push has been the sleeper story of the season. A team that hasn't sniffed the playoffs since 2021 is 47-42 and squarely in the AL Central mix, and reports have the front office looking to add pitching before the deadline rather than sell. That's a franchise-altering shift in posture, and it's happening with a rotation that's actually thin on innings — part of why Martin's last start (3.1 IP, 5 walks, 2 earned) stands out as more than a one-off blip.
Boston Red Sox
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Chicago White Sox
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Bennett's last time out was the version of him Boston needs more of: 7.2 innings, 2 earned runs, 6 strikeouts and zero walks against the Angels. If he brings that to Chicago, it papers over a lot of what's wrong with the rest of the staff. But the Red Sox have shown this season they can be very good for a week and very bad for the next, and a rotation running on fumes doesn't leave much margin against a lineup that's found ways to win close games all year.
Boston Red Sox
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Chicago White Sox
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Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Boston's last-5 whiplash — 2 ugly losses to Washington sandwiched right before a 3-game demolition of the Angels — says this team is capable of both extremes on a given week. Chicago's climb up the standings makes every one of these midweek games carry a little more weight than the record differential suggests, and a rotation battle-tested vs. one running on replacement parts is the actual tension here, line movement aside.
