The Dodgers welcome the White Sox to town for an interleague series to end their homestand beginning Monday night at Dodger Stadium. The matchup is a familiar one.
This is the third meeting between the Dodgers and White Sox in four years and their fifth meeting in seven seasons. The Dodgers are 6-12 against Chicago in their interleague matchups, dating back to 2003, including 4-5 at Dodger Stadium.
Monday's matchup is full of star power.
Clayton Kershaw gets the call in the opener for the Dodgers, making his 99th start at home. Kershaw is 6-3 with a 2.67 ERA in 17 interleague starts, which is great but when compared to his 80-48, 2.63 ERA career marks looks right in line. Dating back to 2011, Kershaw is 4-1 with a 2.52 ERA and has lasted eight or more innings in three straight and five of his last eight interleague starts, averaging 7.625 innings per start.
Chicago on Monday activated Jose Abreu from the disabled list, giving them another prodigious power source for their lineup. The 27-year-old Cuban rookie first baseman is hitting .260/.312/.595 with 15 home runs in 44 games. At the time Abreu was placed on the DL with left ankle tendonitis he led the majors in home runs and extra-base hits (27) and was second in RBI (42).
In his brief major league time, the right-handed Abreu has a bit of a reverse platoon split, hitting just .209/.244/.535 with four home runs and 15 strikeouts in 45 plate appearances against southpaws.
The Dodgers' Cuban star, Yasiel Puig, is one day away from the anniversary of his major league debut. He takes a six-game hitting streak and a 33-game streak of reaching base into Monday's game.
Puig gets linked to Ted Williams, Cy Young and more by Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider, and Puig's first 365 days in the big leagues were subject to historical scrutiny by Pedro Moura of the Orange County Register.
Game into
Time: 7:10 p.m. PT
TV: SportsNet LA