CLEVELAND -- The White Sox would like to get Chris Sale an extra day between starts this week.
Whether or not they attain their goal rests on the shoulders of John Danks, Jeff Samardzija and Erik Johnson. After they previously listed Sale as Wednesday’s starter in Detroit, the White Sox changed the designation on Sunday to ‘TBA.’ The hope is that Sale could start Thursday in New York but that depends upon how many innings the team’s starters can eat the next few days.
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“We’re going to get through that doubleheader first before we figure out when he’s pitching again,” White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “If we can get through that unscathed of people pitching, you might have a chance to push him back a day. Whether we do or not, I don’t know, but we’ve got to get through tomorrow first.”
Monday is the big test as the White Sox play a split doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers. The challenge of getting through those 18 innings has been made more difficult by the inconsistent efforts of Samardzija, who only completed three innings onTuesday and hasn’t gotten out of the fifth in three of his last nine starts.
While Johnson has had better results than Samardzija, he hasn’t pitched beyond the sixth inning in any of his three starts.
The White Sox have long men in Scott Carroll and Frankie Montas in the bullpen but may want to use one of them Wednesday in order to push Sale back a day.
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Sale threw 116 pitches on Friday night in a seven-inning start. Hypothetically, Sale couldstill make three more starts this season, including two on the final homestand.
“We want to be able to get through (Monday),” Ventura said. “We might be able to push him back a bit, but with Scotty and Frankie being here, depending on how we get through it, we’ll go from there.”