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Alright boys, today is game two of a three parter at Wrigley. The Sox absolutely demolished the Cubs in the series opener last night, winning by a score of 10-1 thanks to a strong outing from Dallas Keuchel and six bombs that travelled a combined 2,547 feet. The Sox have now won six straight and sit just one game back of the Twins for the division lead. This team is on fire but far bigger challenges await these next two games. One of those challenges will be Kyle Hendricks, who makes the start for the Cubs today. Kyle is off to an excellent start this season with a 3-2 record and a 2.71 FIP while generating lots of weak contact via his sinker / changeup heavy approach and pinpoint command of the strike zone. Hendricks has faced the Sox seven times in his career and despite a 1-3 record he’s actually been pretty good against us posting a better than career average FIP (3.26) & strikeout rate (8.5/9). That being said, rosters obviously change over time and only two members of our current team have more than 10+ plate appearances against him in Jose & Tim. Both have been awesome against Hendricks posting OPS’s of 1.134 & .900 respectively. If the offense can just avoid chasing Hendricks’ curves & changeups outside of the strike zone, they’ll hopefully see more 87 MPH four seamers in the zone and have a chance to score more runs than expected today. As for the Sox, we’ll be rolling with Reynaldo Lopez today fresh off the IL. I’ll be honest, I was a huge fan of his when he was first acquired in the Eaton trade and would love to put a positive spin on what he might offer today, but he has simply failed to show much development under Cooper. Despite elite velocity, Reynaldo has struggled due to inconsistent / poor spin on his four seamer and an inability to command his secondary pitches. That being said, occasionally it all clicks and he’s able to dominate like he did against the Cubs back in 2018. And if nothing else works, at least we have StatCast’s “similar pitchers” to dream on! Let’s fucking go boys!!!!!!!