CLEVELAND — Shortstop Tim Anderson was scratched from the White Sox lineup shortly before their game against the Cleveland Indians Monday. Anderson’s wife, Bria, was going into labor with the couple’s second child, and the shortstop was en route to Chicago to be with her.
Jose Rondon, who was scheduled to play second base in the Indians’ home opener at 3:10 p.m. Chicago time, will make his first start at shortstop instead.
The Sox have an off day Tuesday and another game Wednesday in Cleveland before their home opener Thursday. Anderson would likely miss both games of the Indians series.
Here is the Sox revised lineup:
Yoan Moncada 3B, Daniel Palka RF, Jose Abreu DH, Yonder Alonso 1B, Eloy Jimenez LF, Welington Castillo C, Yolmer Sanchez 2B, Jose Rondon SS, Adam Engel CF, Ivan Nova P.
Herrera’s velocity still climbing
Right-hander Kelvin Herrera said the strength of his left leg, which was affected after having surgery to repair a Lisfranc fracture on his left foot last summer, is not where it needs to be but it’s close enought.
“Strength-wise, my left leg is probably not 100 percent yet, but it’s ready,” he said Monday. “It’s good to pitch.”
Signed to a two-year deal as a free agent in January, there was some question as to whether Herrera would break camp with the team out of spring training, but he pitched in two of the Sox’ first three games, allowing a run on three hits with no strikeouts and no walks. Per Brooks Baseball, Herrera’s four-seam fastball averaged 95 mph, two mph lower than he averaged pitching for the Royals and Nationals last season.
“I think velocity will be good with the warm weather,” Herrera said. “It’s so cold right now, I think a lot of pitchers aren’t where they want to be in terms of velocity. As long as you throw strikes and locate pitches.”
Herrera, 29, who owns a career 2.82 ERA and a 1.54 mark in seven World Series appearances with the Royals, says he likes the way the Sox bullpen shapes up with Alex Colome on the back end with Ryan Burr, 24 and lefty Jace Fry, 25 blending younger arms in the mx.
“They’re aggressive, they attack, they have no fear,” he said of Burr and Fry. “It’s fun to be part of this bullpen.”
Herrera says he is pitching with the same style as he always has, and always will.
“Same way,” he said. “Attack hitters. That’s how I’ve always pitched, I get after them.”
Clean it up
On the all-important defensive side of things, Sox’ season-opening series at Kansas City was far from crisp. They were charged with four errors (two throwing by shortstop Tim Anderson), and all nine positions were involved on one or more of the following: Throwing error, fielding error, bad ”
“For us to be competitive and to give ourselves a chance, we have to play clean defensive baseball for sure,” manager Rick Renteria said. “I think these guys know it. We talk about it. Any play that ends up unraveling, we talk about it, we go over the video with them. We make sure they understand exactly what happened in a particular moment and we try to correct it.”
After a fly ball fell between left fielder Eloy Jimenez and shortstop Tim Anderson on Opening Day, on which Anderson didn’t hear the rookie, Renteria said he heard a much louder Jimenez from the bench on another fly ball.
