Cortes At Home Is As Dominant As They Come

White Sox vs. Yankees, 7:05 ET

We are headed into another weekend, and I have to be honest – this season has been tougher for me on the weekend than it has been during the week. For whatever reason, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have been the worst days of the week for me. To be clear, I am still up significantly on the season, and I am up on the individual days, just not as much. Still, I’ve been locked in and am looking to continue it here as the White Sox take on the Yankees. 

The White Sox are one of the hottest teams in baseball! Read that sentence again because it is hard to believe, but it is true. The Chicago White Sox won three games in their first 25, six games total by the end of April, and now are at 14 wins for the season. That means since May has started, the White Sox are 8-6. That’s a winning record, folks. At one point they were on pace to win less than 30 games. Now they are looking like they could at least be a competitive team. Did something specific change? I’m not really sure that I would say that. The club isn’t hitting, they have just a .216 batting average and have only scored 128 runs this year. That means they are scoring fewer than three runs per game. It isn’t often that you see an On Base Percentage below .300, but the White Sox are sitting at just .276 for the year. Their pitching does seem to have improved and they only allowed three total runs to the Nationals in their most recent series, including posting back-to-back shutouts. Sure, the Nationals aren’t the best team in the world, but it is still impressive. Tonight, Mike Clevinger takes the ball for the Sox. He has only made two starts this season. He allowed three earned runs over two innings in his first outing. Against the Guardians last week, he allowed one solo home run over 4.2 innings. Yankees hitters have gotten the better of Clevinger for the most part, going 12-for-43 over their chances against him.

May 6, 2024; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA;  Chicago White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger (52) throws a pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays in the first inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees are a squad that has all the means to be the best in the business. They are 29-15 for the season and are 13-6 at home this year. Aaron Judge seems healthy and is mashing the ball once again, leading the team and among the Majors leaders in home runs at 11 for the season. Their offseason addition of Juan Soto looks great as he is batting .310 with nine home runs, and 34 RBIs. He once again looks like one of the best players in the game. The dump trucks are already backing up loads of cash to his house. The surprising part of the Yankees has been the pitching staff. They have a 2.98 ERA this season and they don’t even have Geritt Gole in the rotation. They also are sporting a 1.18 WHIP. Perhaps the best part of their team is they aren’t issuing a ton of walks this year. Keeping runners off base is one of the keys to success, and they are effectively doing that. Nestor Cortes takes the ball for the Yankees today. He has some fairly drastic splits this season. On the road, in five starts, he has a 6.75 ERA. At home, he has made four starts, covered 28.1 innings, and a 1.59 ERA. Cortes has dominated Sox hitters in the past, holding them to a .189 batting average.

This is a spot to trust Cortes. He is pitching at home where he seems to be more successful. He is facing a team that he has dominated in the past and limited to a reasonable number of hits and extra-base hits. I think the Yankees will easily win this game despite not having a rest advantage. Clevinger is actually a decent pitcher, but the Yankees hitters are better than him. Back the Yankees on the run line to win this one even at the high-priced -125. 

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