Gamethread: Sox at Giants

Blest be the nines that tie

Usually, when two winless teams are set to meet, you write something about how one of them has to get off the schneid. But with these two, that might not be the case, since both have established an early spring training quest for equality.

The paths have been quite different, though. The Sox have gotten to 0-2-2 by hitting opponents’ minor league pitchers well, but having other teams hit our minor league pitchers even better. The Giants have gone 0-1-2 by scoring a grand total of four runs so far, including two 1-1 ties that any soccer team would be proud of.

The big story for the Sox today is the first appearance in a Chicago uniform for Lance Lynn, rented for a year in exchange for six years or so of Dane Dunning. We’d provide all the skinny on Lynn, except when it comes to Lynn, skinny does not apply.

We gave the 13th-century Franciscan monk who usually does the lineup card the day off in honor of the Feast Day of St. Casimir, so you can actually read this one:

Note that Adam Engel is back from a brief ankle-induced mini-vacation, and that Yasmani Grandal and his tweaked knee still have yet to make a game appearance. All the first-string infield is starting except Nick Madrigal, who’s expected to bring his repaired shoulder back into action Monday. Jonathan Lucroy gets another chance to see if he remembers how to block pitches or make throws.

The Giants are also going with a newly acquired starting pitcher, in the person of Alex Wood:

No broadcasts of any sort, so for those of us who refuse to be Twitterfied, there’s only spring training Gameday, which provides about as much information as a teenager arriving home after a night out, but at least we’ll be ale to tell if it’s another tie.

Games are supposed to go up to seven innings now, but since yesterday’s went more than 2 ¹⁄₂ hours for 5 1/2, that may not be a good thing.