Game: Chicago White Sox at Minnesota Twins
Time: 8:10 p.m. ET
Starting Pitchers: Lucas Giolito & Beau Burrows
Odds: White Sox -188, Twins +178
The Chicago White Sox are fresh off a weekend sweep of the Cubs and have now won five straight. They head into a new series with Minnesota, which somehow managed to win three of four games against Houston, the leader in the AL West Division. The Twins are the worst team in the AL Central as they are a full 18 games behind the first-place White Sox.
Minnesota is one of the more disappointing stories of 2021. The Twins were expected to challenge Chicago for a division title and, at the very least, be involved in the wild card race. Instead, Minnesota traded DH Nelson Cruz (19 HR, .273) and the ace of their pitching staff Jose Berrios (8-5, 3.23).
Tonight, the Twins will put left-hander Beau Burrows on the mound to start. It’s likely he only pitches a few innings, if he can even last that long. Burrows appeared in one game in Detroit before the Tigers dumped him. He has appeared in four games for Minnesota. The Twins have lost all four.
Burrows has pitched a grand total of 15 major league innings. Opposing batters have gotten the best of him hitting at a .344 clip. As a result, opponents have put on plenty of baserunners that have eventually scored a ton of runs. Burrows’ ERA is a ridiculous 11.00 and his FIP is an almost unheard-of 7.94.
It is likely that if Burrows can give the Twins three or four innings, Minnesota would then turn to rookie Charlie Barnes in long relief. That move is not all that inspiring for Twins fans as the Minnesota bullpen has a 4.95 ERA, the second-worst in the American League. Barnes has appeared in just two MLB games and is 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA.
Bettors might want to take a long look at the total if they can still find the Over at 9.5. The White Sox and Twins have played 16 games thus far this season. The Over is 10-5-1. Chicago gets Gold Glove winner Luis Robert back in the lineup. Robert was hitting .316 when he suffered a hip flexor injury in May.
Burrows having to face the likes of Robert, Eloy Jimenez, and Jose Abreu is likely to result in plenty of runs for the Sox. Chicago has scored 13 or more runs against the Twins three times this season and has scored seven or more runs seven times. Don’t forget, the Chicago lineup will also face the Twins ailing bullpen later in the game.
Chicago will put Lucas Giolito on the mound. While he didn’t pitch that well in his last outing – six earned runs in four innings in a loss to Kansas City – Giolito has pitched well against Minnesota this season. He’s had two quality starts against the Twins including eight innings of one-run baseball in his last appearance at Target Field.
With Giolito on the mound, backing the White Sox makes sense if you can still find them at odds better than -200.