David Phelps (1-0, 3.33 ERA) and the Yankees will travel from Wrigley to Chicago’s south side to take on Chris Sale and the White Sox (3-0, 2.30 ERA). Phelps is coming off his first win of the season, five scoreless innings against the Pirates, to make his fourth start. This is his second career outing against the Sox but his first start. The last time he saw them was in 2012 in 3 1/3 innings of relief.
Sale is fresh off the DL and will make his first start since April 17, having missed the past month with a left flexor strain. “It’s seems like I’ve been in here for three months, watching baseball not really doing anything,” Sale said. “You feel excluded, everyone’s doing their part and chipping in and helping win ballgames, and I’m just sitting over there on the sidelines with pom-poms in my hands really. Actually not even that, sitting in the training room with my elbow in a bucket.”
The Yanks have scored just 24 runs in their last seven games, and more than four runs just once in that span. “It’s not like we haven’t been scoring at all,” Joe Girardi said. “We’ve got a guy here and there struggling. They’re still going to hit and we still consider them to be important parts of our offense. You don’t make too much of 25 at bats, 35 at bats. If it starts to go on for 100 at bats, 200 at bats, then you start to make a lot out of it. You go around the league and you’re going to see guys in 1 for 20s. It happens.”
Jacoby Ellsbury is one of those hitters in a slump. Although he enjoyed a 2-6 game Wednesday, he’s 7-55 (.127) over his last 15 games and is hitting .234 in the month of May after hitting .312 in April. Ellsbury is in a recent slump but Brian McCann is in a season long slump. He has hit just .226 with six homers and 18 RBIs this season.
White Sox captain Paul Konerko, who is also retiring at the end of the season, isn’t quite getting the notoriety Derek Jeter is enjoying, but that didn’t stop Jeter from praising Konerko. “Paulie, he’s a great guy. I’ve enjoyed competing against him,” Jeter said. “He’s the captain of the White Sox, he’s a guy who’s had a lot of success and plays the game the right way. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him throughout the years. He’s had a lot of success against us. Paulie is someone that I think White Sox fans will always remember. It has just as much to do with what he’s done on the field.”
As Jeter mentioned, Konerko historically been a Yankee killer. In 102 games against the Bombers, he’s hit .316 with 23 home runs, 65 RBIs and a .958 OPS.
First pitch at 8:10 PM on Yes
