Game Thread: Welcome to the show, Sam Antonacci

Sam Antonacci’s call up brings some much-needed ability to get on base, and fielding versatility | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Happy Jackie Robinson Day to all who celebrate! The White Sox (6-11) dropped the first game of a three-game set with the Rays Tuesday behind Noah Schultz in his MLB debut, and righthander Sean Burke will take the mound in an effort to create any form of positive momentum for the team. As it stands, the South Siders are 4-6 in their last 10 while holding down last place in the AL Central — 4.5 games behind the first place Twins — and they still hold the worst run differential in all of baseball (-33).

For us White Sox fans, we have more than one person to celebrate today. The White Sox announced this afternoon that utility man Sam Antonacci has finally been called up to the show, and will make his major league debut on the South Side Wednesday. Antonacci has cruised through the minor league system, making an solid first impression in Low-A ball with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers in 2024 (.333/.471/.432 in 81 ABs), and posted an .837 OPS with the High-A Winston-Salem Dash before being promoted to the Double-A Barons and maintaining a consistent .816 OPS.

After his performance on the international stage with Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, he came into the 2026 season hot out the gates with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, slashing .313/.500/.479 with a .979 OPS in 14 games (48 at-bats). Though he’s primarily played the infield throughout his collegiate and amateur career, he’s played 100 innings in left field this season with a 1.000 fielding percentage, and has flashed his arm accuracy by throwing a few runners out — something the South Side outfield desperately needs. Welcome to the show, Sam!

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Now for our pitching, Burke has been more consistent in this last two starts compared to opening weekend, sitting at a 2.45 ERA in two April outings, with three earned runs given up on six hits across 11 innings, accompanied by 10 strikeouts and just two walks. A small sample size, of course, but his statcast percentile rankings are almost night and day compared to 2025:

Sean Burke’s Statcast metrics comparing 2025 to 2026

Burke’s 3.60 ERA on the season is nearly double his 1.96 FIP, signaling that the poor defense on balls in play are also hindering his ability to keep runs from crossing the plate. His low 4.8% walk rate also highlights that runners aren’t necessarily getting on base because of Burke alone, and the White Sox rank 7th with 12 errors so far on the year, and that doesn’t include the mental errors that we regularly see in the field. Last season, Burke struggled with batters barreling the ball at a much higher rate (10.4%), though he is down to 2.3% so far in 2026.

A week spot, however, is that he often gives up a lot of pulled fly balls, which could be trouble with the wrong batter, especially with power hitters such as Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda, and Yandy Díaz. Here’s how the Rays will line ‘em up today:

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Old friend alert! Righthander Jesse Scholtens will make his first start of the season, and second appearance in 2026, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless innings behind the starting pitcher to finish the game. Scholtens was claimed off of waivers by Tampa Bay last August after he was designated for assignment by the White Sox following his rehab assignment from Tommy John surgery. In two outings with the Rays last season (8 1/3 innings), he allowed seven runs (five earned) on nine hits, including one home run. Scholtens had an excellent 31.6% strikeout rate last season, and was able to get batters to chase, though his one outing this year is a bit too small of a sample size to see how he will progress throughout the season.

Tonight’s lineup construction is another Will Venable classic: seemingly picking lineups out of a hat to see if anything works better. For whatever reason, Andrew Benintendi is leading off and playing left field, while last night’s leadoff batter has now shifted into the three-spot (Miguel Vargas). Munetaka Murakami at least remains in the two-hole after a pair of walks and a two-run bomb yesterday, but some of the other choices don’t necessarily make sense. For example, on Tuesday, Venable insisted on batting Everson Pereira over Colson Montgomery in the cleanup spot in his first game off of the IL, yet today he is nowhere to be found in the lineup after a three-run homer.

Sam Antonacci will make his debut batting fifth and playing second base in place of Chase Meidroth, who will get a rest day. I’m not worried about where Antonacci is batting in the lineup, but the Sox have been working him in the outfield more a couple months only to roll out a brutal outfield rotation while sitting an everyday player. Trying to understand here, Will, but we are all confused on a daily basis. Normal teams probably aren’t doing a plug-and-play in the lineup everyday, but here we are. I digress.

Here’s the full lineup for the Good Guys tonight:

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Another round of storms are set to roll through the Chicagoland area this evening, weather permitting, first pitch will take place at 6:40 p.m. CT. Be sure to tune in for Antonacci’s debut either on CHSN or on the radio via ESPN Chicago AM 1000.