Padres News: Padres Vs. White Sox Series Preview
The San Diego Padres will face the Chicago White Sox for a two game exhibition series on Friday April 1st and Saturday April 2nd. The series will be the main attraction at the 2016 Padres annual Fan Fest, although some fans are bothered that the Padres will Charge admission for the games. Still the price is quite a good deal at just 10 dollars for general admission seats, to see some MLB action at Petco Park.
This of course will be the first chance for Friar Faithful to watch some Padres baseball at Petco Park in 2016. The White Sox are coming off a pretty decent spring finishing sixth in the Cactus League with a 15-13 record. The Sox roster is also pretty much set with not much questions left at the moment.
The White Sox will have a lot to prove this season. Many aren’t quite sure how the Sox will fair against the 2015 World Champion Royals and a very competitive A.L. Central, even with the acquisitions of Brett Lawrie and Todd Frazier. The Padres on the other hand are coming off a pretty horrible spring, finishing dead last in the Cactus League with a 10-19 record.
Also contrary to the Chi Sox the Friars have a few questions left in terms of the roster, especially in the pitching department. This series could potentially prove to land someone a job in the Padres bullpen or rotation depending on what manger Andy Green sees out there.
The Pitching match up for Friday will be quite an interesting one as fan favorite Andrew Cashner will face not so fan-favorite, a man who will cause a lot of booing and heckling throughout the game former Friar Mat Latos. Cashner is of course the number three starter in the Padres rotation, while Latos has landed himself the number four spot in the Sox rotation.
As for Saturday the South Siders starter will be veteran John Danks while the Padres pitcher is still yet to be named, the Padres starter can be anyone from Colin Rea to Drew Pomeranz or maybe even recently acquired Dan Straily. It appears that the White Sox will be taking a different approach to the games than the Padres and actually see the series as warm up games leading up to Opening Day.
The Sox are using their number four and five starters instead of using Chris Sale for a couple of innings and taking him out as you would in spring training. The Padres approach to the game still remains unknown with still a few position battles going in terms of pitching, maybe Andy Green would like to take advantage of the exhibition series and get all of the pitchers who have a shot of making the team a chance to make their final attempt at impressing the Padres skipper.
The Padres and the White Sox have only faced each other on nine occasions in regular MLB season games. The Sox have the slight advantage winning five games out of the nine. The last time the Friars and Chi Sox faced each other was not so long ago in 2014 at U.S Cellular Field, the Pads would take the series two games to one, with Ian Kennedy and Tyson Ross getting the victories for the Friars.
The last and only time the White Sox were in San Diego was over a decade ago in the White Sox World Series campaign of 2005. The Sox would take the series two games to one. The last game of that series would be a thriller as Aaron Rowand would hit a three run home run off Trevor Hoffman in the 10th inning which put the White Sox in the lead 8-5 and decide the battle between Bruce Bochy and Ozzie Guillen‘s teams. We should be in store for quite an interesting exhibition series at Fan Fest. I strongly recommend fans to get out to the ballpark and enjoy some Friars baseball for the great price of 10 bucks.
Francisco, 26, Chula Vista/Tijuana. I have been a Padres fan all my life, did most of the series previews and recaps in the Padres’ 2016 season for EVT. Now I focus more on the local soccer scene. Tijuana Xolos, San Diego Loyal, San Diego Wave.