The Chicago White Sox snapped an eight-game losing streak with a victory Friday night over the Oakland Athletics.

Now Youth Durham Smythe Jersey , the White Sox will try to start building momentum in a positive direction.

Chicago (25-50) will go for back-to-back wins when it hosts Oakland (39-37) on Saturday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox and A’s are coming off a doubleheader split and have two games left in the four-game series on Chicago’s South Side.

The matchup will represent a personal milestone for White Sox right-hander Dylan Covey (3-2, 2.90 ERA), who will face the A’s for the first time in his career. The A’s drafted him in 2013 in the fourth round, but Chicago selected him in the Rule 5 draft before the start of last season.

Covey endured a turbulent 2017 campaign but has performed much better this time around. The 26-year-old went five straight starts without a defeat before falling short in his most recent outing Monday against the Cleveland Indians. He gave up four earned runs on six hits over six innings in that 6-2 defeat.

This will be Covey’s 20th start in the big leagues. He is 3-9 with a 5.95 ERA in his career.

“On the outside looking in, I would say he’s on a path that leads us to believe he’s turning a corner and getting to where you feel comfortable with all of his approaches, when he’s attacking hitters, and that’s going to be able to have this become a sustainable activity for him,” Chicago manager Rick Renteria said to the Chicago Sun-Times. “The stuff is good. It’s always going to be, for all pitchers, trusting the stuff and commanding strikes.”

For Oakland, right-hander Daniel Mengden (6-6, 4.06 ERA) is set to make his 16th start of the season. The Houston Astros drafted Mengden in the fourth round in 2014, and he was traded to Oakland the next season as part of a package for veteran left-hander Scott Kazmir.

Kazmir has not pitched in the big leagues since 2016, but Mengden appears to have a bright future at age 25. He has struggled recently, however, allowing 16 earned runs in his past 14 1/3 innings for a 10.05 ERA during that span. He has given up eight home runs in that time.

In his only career appearance against the White Sox earlier this season, Mengden allowed only one run and six hits in eight innings. He walked one and struck out six while picking up the win in Oakland’s 8-1 victory.

A’s outfielder Matt Joyce could remain in the lineup one day after he was activated from the 10-day disabled list with a lumbar strain. He hit .196 with seven home runs and 13 RBIs before the injury, and he went 0-for-2 in his return Friday night.

“Obviously, he’s been a big part of our lineup,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said to mlb.com. “Maybe not the year he envisioned up to this point, but we feel like he’s swung the bat a lot better than his numbers would suggest. He had a couple of hits the last couple of games, and he’s healthy again.”

The White Sox are 13-25 at home. The A’s are 19-17 on the road.
After a four-week break from racing, American standout Lindsey Vonn is returning to the Alpine skiing World Cup this weekend with an unusual mindset.

For the most successful female skier of all time, Vonn’s main priority at the first speed events of 2018 won’t be winning.

With only 40 days left until her season highlight, the Olympic downhill in Pyeongchang, avoiding injuries is all that matters.

”I feel solid but my focus this season is on the Olympics. So I am not going to risk anything this weekend Youth Jason Sanders Jersey ,” Vonn told The Associated Press on Friday after taking part in a shortened training session.

She was worried because the snow on parts of the Karnten-Franz Klammer course was still too weak after heavy rain this week and mild temperatures.

”The top is good but the bottom is not safe to race,” she said.

Organizers swapped the program for this weekend by pushing back the downhill to Sunday and rescheduling a super-G for Saturday, as a downhill can be staged only after competitors have at least one training run on the entire course.

”I am also not sure why the super-G is first,” Vonn said. ”Considering the snow conditions, it would be better to do the downhill first but, again, I don’t know. We haven’t inspected the bottom part of the course so I am not really sure what the reason behind it is.”

Vonn said she would make her own decision about racing or not after checking the course on Saturday, saying she would rather sit it out ”if conditions aren’t good enough to run.”

Vonn badly injured her right knee landing in a patch of soft snow during the 2013 world championships, which ultimately ruled the 2010 Olympic downhill champion out of the Sochi Games the following year.

It explains the 33-year-old American’s cautiousness going into what likely will be her last Olympics.

Her season so far has been rather rough.

Trying to improve her ranking ahead of the Olympic giant slalom, she failed to qualify for the second run of the season-opening GS in Soelden, Austria, in October.

Focusing on the speed events since, she landed in the safety netting at full speed during the first downhill in Lake Louise in early December, and finished only 12th in another downhill the next day. She crashed again in a super-G on the third day of racing at the Canadian resort where she won 18 times in the past.

A week later, she jarred her back in a super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, completing the race in pain in 24th place.

Vonn hasn’t raced since Dec. 16 when she earned her 78th career win at a super-G in Val d’Isere, France. The following day, she took part in the early morning inspection for another super-G at the resort but then decided against racing, citing a sore knee, and flew home.

”The last race in Val d’Isere I skied very well,” she said. ”It still wasn’t my best but I had a good block at home in Colorado. I was able to do a lot of condition training and got some GS and slalom in as well.”

Vonn practicing slalom underlined her ambition to start in the Olympic combined event as well.

”I feel good, definitely,” Vonn said, adding the knee was hampering her ”not more than usual. I feel decent.”