Tampa Bay Rays at Chicago White Sox Baseball Odds & Game 4 Predictions

Written October 6, 2008 by Jack Jones

The Chicago White Sox are trying to win their second straight game at home and push this series back to Tampa for a Wednesday Game 5 when they take on the Rays Monday afternoon. Bookmaker has Chicago listed as -123 favorites over Tampa Bay.

The White Sox have gotten kind of good at this facing elimination thing, since last week they had to win three straight games at home against three different teams in order to even get a berth into the post-season. After getting off to an 0-2 start against Tampa, they faced elimination at US Cellular Field yet again on Sunday and came away with a 5-3 victory. The win was the first in the post-season for Chicago since winning the 2005 World Series.

This team should have the confidence to put together another win after seeing themselves fight back when pushed against the wall so many times over the past week. They don’t really have to compete for the attention of their home town anymore with the Cubs being swept by the Dodgers.

After scoring only six runs in the first two games, the offense needed to get going. AJ Pierzynski and Ken Griffey Jr did their parts with two hits a piece and Dewayne Wise had a two-run double in a three-run fourth inning. Wise also hit a three-run home run in the first game of the series, and Pierzynski has been the hottest Sox hitter in the series, now 5-for-10 at the plate.

It really is no surprise that the White Sox are in this position. They went 54-28 in front of the home crowd this year while having a 35-46 record on the road. Things have held the same pattern in the postseason with the team dropping two on the road, so South Siders are hoping that steak isn’t broken until the series returns to St. Petersberg.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon isn’t too upset about losing yesterday’s game. This team is young and inexperienced and a sweep in the first round might have got the players thinking the playoffs were going to go easy the rest of the way. Now they have tasted defeat and have a test to see how they will respond.

It’ll be Gavin Floyd taking the mound today for Chicago, making his post-season debut after a solid regular season in which he went 17-8 with a 3.84 ERA. Last Monday Floyd got the start against the Tigers and struck out eight in six innings to help the team to a 8-2 win.

Tampa Bay is sending out Andy Sonnanstine, who was 13-9 in the regular season with a 4.38 ERA. He will be making his first post-season start after going 0-3 in his last seven during the regular season. The good news for Rays fans is that Sonnanstine was solid against Chicago all year long, giving up just seven runs in 21 innings.

The Tampa Bay offense really hasn’t had much trouble yet with the Sox pitching. Yesterday BJ Upton was 2-for-5 with a home run. Akinori Iwamura continued his hot bat and he’s now at 5-for-13 with a home run and four runs batted in this series. Evan Longoria started the series out 4-for-7 with two blasts but went 0-3 yesterday. If you want to bet on Tampa Bay the best odds are at Sportsbook.com, where you can deposit quickly and easily with your credit or debit card.

Our pick: Take the White Sox

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