This team refuses to lose vs. lefty starters

The White Sox are making life uncomfortable for lots of pitchers, but the South Siders are truly not the team any southpaw wants to see right now.

Chicago, which entered Wednesday topping the American League in team OPS (.809) and was second to the Astros in runs per game (5.17), has been even better when it lines up against a left-handed starter -- as in, just about perfect. The White Sox are 11-0 against lefty starters to begin 2020, looking to keep that unblemished mark going against veteran Royals southpaw Danny Duffy tonight. Per STATS LLC, that’s already the second-longest unbeaten streak that any lineup has compiled against lefty starters to begin a season behind the 1963 Orioles, who started 16-0 with names like John Orsino, Boog Powell, Jim Gentile and Brooks Robinson swinging the bats.

The White Sox lefty dominance makes more sense when you start scanning their roster: offseason trade acquisition Nomar Mazara is the club’s only current full-time left-handed hitter that has logged as many 20 plate appearances. Chicago has allocated an MLB-most 71.5% of its plate appearances in the right-handed batter’s box, with regulars Tim Anderson, José Abreu, Edwin Encarnación, Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert all being full-time righty hitters. All of those stars except Encarnación are carrying an adjusted OPS+ above league average, and Anderson and catcher James McCann -- also a righty -- have been crushing lefties as much as anyone through the lens of sOPS+, which measures a player’s individual split against the Major League average for that same split.

Highest sOPS+ vs. LHP, 2020
Min. 20 PA vs. LHP entering Wednesday (259 hitters)
1) Tim Anderson (CWS): 323
2) Nelson Cruz (MIN): 317
3) Austin Slater (SF): 303
4-T) Wil Myers (SD): 274
4-T) Marcell Ozuna (ATL): 274
6) James McCann (CWS): 265
100 = average

White Sox hitters top the Majors with 15 homers against lefty starters, and Anderson leads the team with four -- three of them coming off Tigers southpaw Matthew Boyd. Remember, the White Sox made history when they hit back-to-back homers to begin the first inning in two different games against Detroit’s top lefty, doing so in contests that were only five days apart.

The White Sox are also batting .330 and slugging .654 in 11 games against starters slinging the ball in from the left side, both AL-best marks.

“I know the numbers show we definitely have an affinity for [lefties]," manager Rick Renteria said Wednesday. "Thankfully if you’re on the other side looking at the guys we have, I’m sure everybody is going, ‘Wow, these guys are pretty good.' It’s still about executing and giving yourself a chance, but right now the numbers are showing a tremendously impactful game against left-handed pitching.”

This is obviously far from the only reason the White Sox have surged up the ranks of the AL Central (they currently sit one game back of Cleveland), but Chicago’s lefty prowess could bear some weight on how it fares in October. The South Siders’ potential playoff seeding is very much up in the air, but think of the rotations of their potential opponents. The AL East-leading Rays have been ravaged by injuries, but still have lefty ace Blake Snell pitching well. Injuries have also hit the Yankees to the point where lefties J.A. Happ or James Paxton (if he returns in time) could be called upon to start big games. Rich Hill could get October starts for the Twins, the A’s acquired Mike Minor to shore up the left side of their rotation and maybe curveball artist Framber Valdez could be tasked to start for the Astros. Blue Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu or Boyd -- the Tigers starter they’ve manhandled so far -- could very well be waiting for the White Sox in the Wild Card round.

The slugging Sox will need to beat plenty of righty starters in October, too, and it’s not like they’ve struggled against them, either. But in perhaps the most wide-open playoff field the AL has seen in a while, Chicago’s trump card against lefties could prove to be a big advantage -- and a massive headache for opposing managers.