The Chicago White Sox have been in deep in the struggle over the past couple of seasons, finishing with more than 100 losses in each of the past three seasons. Finally, though, there’s light at the end of the tunnel for the White Sox, as prized free agent Munetaka Murakami has displayed plenty of promise and 2025 Rookie of the Year fifth-place finisher Colson Montgomery is off to a strong start in his sophomore campaign.
Chicago now sits at 4-5 after sweeping the AL pennant-holding Toronto Blue Jays. By comparison, its upcoming three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles should be a breeze. The series will begin tonight with a 7:40 p.m. ET matchup at Rate Field.
The White Sox will send Grant Taylor to the mound as an opener ahead of (likely) Erick Fedde, and Baltimore will counter with Brandon Young.
Let’s break down this matchup with some odds and lines at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox prediction, preview
Chicago started its season with just about the hardest possible schedule, as its first three series were against the NL’s top-seeded Milwaukee Brewers, the Miami Marlins (who narrowly missed the playoffs last season and are just one game out of the NL’s top seed so far in 2026), and the AL’s top-seeded Blue Jays. Despite some offensive inconsistency, the fact that the White Sox are 4-5 is pretty impressive, given their schedule. The Orioles, meanwhile, faced the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, and Pittsburgh Pirates — all of whom finished .500 or worse last season — and are just 3-6. In the aggregate, both teams have ranked near the bottom of the league on both sides of the ball, but with a trio of three-plus-run wins, Chicago has the higher ceiling and lower floor.
Taylor has served as the opener twice in the past three days, pitching a scoreless, one-hit inning in each of the first two games of the series against Toronto. All in all, he’s given up just three hits and one earned run in four innings of work this season, so he should be expected to produce a clean inning before giving way to Fedde. The journeyman had a miserable 2025 campaign, pitching to a 5.49 ERA across stints with three different teams and being optioned to the minors at one point, and he wasn’t great in his White Sox debut, giving up four runs (three earned) in five innings and taking the loss. Fedde has some promising stuff — in 2024, he finished in the 90th percentile in pitching run value — but even in his best seasons, he’s struggled to generate chases or whiffs. That could be mitigated some today, since Baltimore has whiffed at an above-average rate so far this season, but his propensity to give up hard hits could be a problem, given that the Orioles rank sixth in hard-hit percentage so far. Baltimore was also much better against righties than lefties last season, and it’s now led by Pete Alonso, who had reverse splits last season.
But while the Orioles might get to Fedde, Young isn’t a much more trustworthy pitcher. He didn’t show much as a rookie last season, allowing two or more earned runs in 10 of his 12 starts and giving up three or more eight times. Like Fedde, Young struggled to induce whiffs or strikeouts, ranking in the bottom quintile in both of those categories as well as barrel rate, so Murakami — who’s virtually been a three-outcomes hitter in his MLB career so far — should be salivating. The only Statcast categories in which he ranked above the median were extension (thanks to his six-foot-six frame) and ground ball rate, though the latter could be useful today against a Chicago team that struggles to get the ball up as is. Young struggled mightily against lefties, and five of the White Sox’s nine projected starters tonight bat from that side of the plate.
Baltimore Orioles at Chicago White Sox pick, best bet
Best Bet: Chicago White Sox Moneyline (+119)
On paper, Baltimore is more set up to get to Fedde than Chicago is to get to Young. It’s just difficult to bank on a team that just got swept by the Pirates and continues to be without arguably its most talented player, Jackson Holliday. Backing the White Sox at home with plus-odds seems like a the better value.
Strong Lean: Munetaka Murakami 2+ Hits + Runs + RBI’s (+113)
Murakami’s gifts and flaws have both been on full display in the first nine games of his career. He’s smashed four homers, including one in each of his first three games, and he ranks in the 93rd percentile in barrel percentage, but he also ranks in just the 12th percentile in whiff rate. I’m leaning on him to have a good night against the error-prone Young, whose sample size of struggles against lefties (144 plate appearances) isn’t completely minuscule.
