The stakes couldn't look more different for these two. Chicago's turnaround is one of the stranger stories in the sport this year — a team that lost 100-plus games three straight seasons is now sitting atop the AL Central. Houston's playing out a much tighter script, hanging around the AL West and wild-card picture after a season that's had its share of stumbles.
Chicago has won 4 straight as of Saturday, August 29, going 2-1 against Texas in that stretch before taking the first 2 of its set with Minnesota. Houston's been streakier — 2-1 against the Yankees, a split with the Mets — and dropped its most recent game before this preview was written. Both clubs still have two more meetings against each other before this one, on Monday, August 31 and Tuesday, September 1, so whatever form either team carries into Wednesday will have already been rewritten by then.
Chicago's injury list runs deep beyond the bullpen — both catchers, Kyle Teel and Joey Bart, are out, and Teel's already begun a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte. Houston's issues are more top-of-the-roster: Correa remains the headline, Brice Matthews isn't eligible back until mid-September, and Brandon Walter is still working through a throwing progression months into his own rehab.
Whichever version of these two rosters shows up on Wednesday, the framing is set — a shockingly good White Sox team trying to hold a division lead nobody saw coming, against an Astros club trying to piece together enough healthy bodies to make a real wild-card push down the stretch.