Chicago right-handed pitcher Dylan Covey says he is healthy and ready to get back to work when the White Sox head to Texas to begin a three-game series on Friday against the Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington.
Covey (3-2 Adidas Sidney Crosby Jersey , 3.45 ERA) will pitch the series opener while Texas will counter with right-hander Yovani Gallardo (1-0, 12.08).
Covey has been the White Sox’s steadiest starter this season and was protecting a 5-2 lead in the fourth against Oakland, his former team, June 23 when he felt some soreness in his hip and groin areas while he was coming off the mound and was removed from the game.
“I don’t know exactly what it was,” Covey said. “We didn’t get any tests done but all the manual tests they did said my strength is good. Just probably like a cramp or something like that that was lingering a little bit. I was feeling it on the mound, so definitely thinking about it.”
Covey was sidelined from May 26-Aug. 15 last season with a strained left oblique. He’s been a pleasant surprise for the White Sox this year, having drastically cut down his home run rate.
“Everything felt great — unless something weird happens, I’ll be good to go,” Covey said of his bullpen session on Tuesday. “That’s the plan. It didn’t really hurt. It was kind of a precautionary thing, I think.”
Covey is 0-0 with a 20.25 ERA in two relief appearances against the Rangers.
Gallardo will make his fifth appearance and third start of the season on Friday. It will be his third start with the Rangers, with whom he’s allowed nine earned runs over 10 1/3 innings in his initial two starts.
Gallardo is slated to be working on extended five-days’ rest. He picked up the win in his last start, a 9-6 Rangers victory on Saturday in Minneapolis. Gallardo is 1-1 with a 4.79 ERA over four career starts versus the White Sox.
The White Sox had a delayed arrival into Texas after a 2-1 loss to Minnesota in 13 innings on Thursday.
Texas enjoyed an off day on Thursday after a 5-2 win over San Diego that gave the Rangers their fourth straight series win.
Texas got a sterling performance by left-hander Mike Minor, who retired the first 19 Padres’ batters before a single from Eric Hosmer with one out in the seventh. He retired 21 of the 22 batters he faced over seven innings.
The Rangers inked Minor to a three-year contract in the offseason. He was a starter with the Braves in 2010-14 before missing all of 2015-16 because of a torn labrum in his left shoulder and is starting to prove that the Rangers made the right move despite a slow start to the season.
I feel better, yeah,” Minor said after Wednesday’s game. “I feel a little bit more consistent with my delivery, repeating things. It’s more about what I think. I think I can do it.
“Early on, I still had the confidence. I just knew that I was a little bit off with my mechanics and everything, but I knew I had the stuff to get through a lineup three times, four times Adidas Joe Thornton Jersey , whatever it is, and to go deep in ballgames.”
Texas is 9-3 over its past 12 games after losing six in a row.
Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance during Wednesday win over the Padres, extending his on-base streak to 40 straight games.
That ties for the longest such streak in the Majors this season. Odubel Herrera of the Phillies reached base in 40 straight from March 30-May 19.
The Rangers dropped three of four games on May 17-20 on Chicago’s South Side in the first series between the two teams this season.
Kevin Hart fessed up he was tipsy when he tried to crash the Super Bowl stage and celebrate with his hometown Philadelphia Eagles when they hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. The pint-sized funnyman ran into a no-nonsense security guard who refused to allow Hart, wearing an Eagles letterman’s jacket, access to the stage that was set up on the field.
Unlike the Eagles, Hart’s Super Bowl celebration would have to be held elsewhere.
”To all the kids out there, I just want to say don’t drink. When alcohol is in your system, you do dumb stuff,” he later said on an Instagram video.
Hart, the Grammy-nominated star, would have fit in fine in Philly.
Unruly Eagles fans climbed light poles, took trust falls off a hotel canopy, flipped cars, busted store windows and even streaked down city streets shortly after their team won the Super Bowl.
It was time to party.
Eagles fans are just getting started.
The city announced that the Super Bowl parade will be Thursday, starting at 11 a.m. at Broad Street near the stadiums. It will move north along the city’s main thoroughfare, past City Hall and finish at the art museum’s ”Rocky Steps.” The National Weather Service says Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of 34 degrees. Rain and snow are expected in the city Wednesday.
Beer bashes and drunken revelry are in the forecast for the parade.
Eagles fans had suffered through five decades – through Buddy, Reggie and T.O. – without a Super Bowl championship and they want this celebration to go down as one to remember.
That is, if they can remember, in the wake of an alcohol-fueled stupor.
Revelers along the parade route will be able to indulge in free Bud Light at two dozen bars Adidas Logan Couture Jersey , thanks to a promise the beer maker made to Eagles offensive tackle Lane Johnson before the season.
Revelers shot off fireworks, drivers beeped their horns and Philadelphians young and old descended Sunday night on Broad Street, the main thoroughfare that last hosted a major championship parade in 2008
Eagles fans are expected to stuff city streets in record numbers. The Flyers have long claimed more than 2 million fans went wild down Broad each year for the 1974 and 1975 Stanley Cup winning teams. Sixers fans mobbed the streets for Dr. J and the 1983 NBA champion 76ers.
And Phillies star outfielder Pat Burrell led a championship procession in 2008, riding a horse-drawn carriage and pumping his fists down Broad. Next came eight flatbed trucks filled with waving players and other members of the Phillies organization, including the Phanatic.
Throngs in Phillies gear packed downtown sidewalks, making them almost impassable. Fans climbed trees, hung out of windows, watched from balconies, carried stepladders and stood on roofs to get a better view. The Phillies then greeted tens of thousands of fans who had watched the parade on big screens at the city’s baseball and football stadiums. The team first stopped at Lincoln Financial Field, where the Eagles play.
Now, the Linc isn’t just the site of another team’s rally – it’s the home of the Super Bowl champs.
The Super Bowl, though, was about an overzealous excuse for irresponsible behavior.
The Eagles are perhaps the city’s greatest passion, and the outpouring of support came in more forms than simply pouring one out. Grown men cried and hugged their fathers. Families bundled up and hit the streets to bang pots and pans and share the championship together. Some fans carried signs with names of loved ones no longer here in tribute for those who never got to cherish a Super Bowl title before death.
”I moved here in `94. I didn’t have a team back home (Louisville). The Eagles were my adopted team,” said 41-year-old Eagles fan Rob Ballenger. ”This city has an underdog culture and to rise above it right now is amazing. This city is at a turning point in so many ways.
”I made 100 new friends at the bar (Grace Tavern). Philly fans sometimes get a negative slant in the media, a negative reputation. But these are the best fans in the world, the most passionate.”
They’ll finally get their chance Thursday to celebrate the champion Eagles as one city, united in green.