Game Thread: White Sox (25-24) at Giants (20-30)

Dominant righthander Davis Martin will take the mound in San Francisco on Friday. | (Photo by Michael Hirschuber/Getty Images) After back-to-back to back road trips to the West Coast, this series represents, in late May, the White Sox final games in the Pacific Time Zone. Tony Vitello and the San Francisco Giants look to give the South Siders their first series loss since April 26, while Munetaka Murakami and friends will look to not drop back-to-back games and series.

On the mound to protect the club’s quickly-building reputation as a threat in the league is this season’s ace, Davis Martin. The dominant righthander is coming off of a thrilling win at home against the Cubs where he went six innings, gave up one run, and struck out seven. His 10th start of the season could tie him with former White Sox great Chris Sale with seven wins to lead baseball.

Martin was recently name No. 10 on the MLB’s pitching power rankings, a standing that should be higher but nonetheless has been earned given his third-ranked 1. 61 ERA.

He ranks in the top 5% of MLB pitchers with a 4. 7% walk percentage. He has only struck out 59 batters over his 56 innings of work, but of the 45 hits he has given up so far this season, only 38% have gone for extra bases.