Historically, the White Sox have struggled on the West Coast as badly as the A's have struggled in places like the Metrodome, but (to the A's delight) Chicago just took two out of three down in Anaheim.
Tonight, the red-hot Jon Garland, 17-4, 4.28, squares off against the "red-hot until his last start" Esteban Loaiza, whose finest season came as a member of the White Sox. Both pitchers are, historically, innings-eaters who will give up some hits but will also throw a lot of strikes.
Meanwhile, he was announced as unlikely to play tonight, but in fact the starting lineups feature an episode of "Welcome Back, Kotsay"--at the expense of Dan Johnson, who sits against a right-handed starter:
Podsednik
Iguchi
Dye
Thome
Konerko
Pierzynski
Crede
Mackowiak
Uribe
Kendall
Kotsay
Bradley
Thomas
Chavez
Payton
Swisher
Ellis
Scutaro
