Young White Sox showing no fear of champion Dodgers

As the Chicago White Sox continue accumulating home victories, second baseman Chase Meidroth insists the approach is elementary.

"We talk always about limiting the damage, scoring runs when we've got runners on," he said. "That's how you win baseball games."

Chicago has eight consecutive wins at Rate Field entering Saturday's matinee against the Los Angeles Dodgers to help them climb to the top of the American League Central.

Chicago is 23-11 at home, with only the Tampa Bay Rays having more victories (24) in their home ballpark.

The White Sox's home win total includes three in a row against the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, the top two teams in the major leagues.

No one expected the young White Sox to compete for a division title this season, but that is what they are doing. A dozen players have made their major league debuts in 2026, and manager Will Venable has seamlessly worked them into the lineup. The youngsters weren't intimated by the Dodgers, the two-time defending World Series champions, and they got contributions from throughout the lineup.

Meidroth and Miguel Vargas contributed three hits apiece in an 8-2 romp in the series opener. Meidroth stretched his hitting streak to 12 games and has reached base in 22 games in a row.

He is batting .340 (16-for-47) during his hitting streak and .282 for the season.

Without leadoff hitter and two-way star Shohei Ohtani (left knee inflammation), the Dodgers were limited to four hits on Friday. Miguel Rojas had two. Chicago's pitchers retired the final 19 batters of the game.

Asked about the possibility that Ohtani could return to the lineup Saturday, Roberts said Friday: "I'm optimistic, but I want to get him through tonight, get him here, go through some semblance of a workout, getting his body ready, and then we'll go from there."

The Dodgers fell to 2-2 on a six-game road trip that started in Pittsburgh. Friday marked their most lopsided road loss of the season.

Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-4, 2.68 ERA) will start for the Dodgers on Saturday against right-hander Sean Burke (3-3, 3.88) of the White Sox.

Yamamoto is aiming to win his fourth consecutive start. He delivered a dominant eight innings in a 9-2 victory against the visiting Los Angeles Angels last Saturday, spacing one run and two hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

After yielding his lone run in the first inning, Yamamoto watched the Dodgers score nine runs in the bottom half. That helped him hone an assortment of pitches that begin with a fastball, sinker, splitter, slider and curveball.

"You get up big like that and you don't want to get too cute to an extent, but you also want to understand and see what he's capable of," Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing said. "[You want to] kind of throw a couple more tricks up your sleeve, in a way. And for him it's so easy because he has eight pitches that he can throw wherever he wants. We tried a few new tricks, and we'll carry them over into his next one."

Yamamoto pitched seven innings of one-run, three-hit ball against visiting Chicago on July 1 last season to earn the victory in his only career appearance against the White Sox. Andrew Benintendi singled against the right-hander.

Burke picked up a win last Saturday at Philadelphia. Taking over for opener Brandon Eisert, Burke worked 4 1/3 innings, scattering three runs and three hits, including a pair of homers. Burke walked five against seven strikeouts in a 6-3 victory.

His lone career appearance against the Dodgers came last July 2 when he gave up a solo home run to Andy Pages -- one of six hits for Los Angeles. Burke took a no-decision in Chicago's 5-4 loss.

--Field Level Media

--Field Level Media