The Tampa Bay Rays will try to win their fourth consecutive series to start the season when they meet the White Sox at Chicago on Tuesday afternoon.
The Rays had never won three consecutive series to open a season.
Tampa Bay will also try to improve to 9-3 for just the second time in team history. The Rays started 10-3 in 2010.
The Rays are getting solid starting pitching, timely hitting, superb defense and haven't been thrown out on any of their 16 stolen-base attempts this season.
Tampa Bay starting pitchers have put up a zero in 36 of the past 37 innings, and the Rays are one of three major-league teams that have not allowed an unearned run this season.
In nine of 11 games, Tampa Bay has allowed two runs or fewer. Most recently, the Rays won the opener of the three-game series at Chicago 5-1 on Monday afternoon.
"We have good guys who play hard every single day," said Tampa Bay right-fielder Avisail Garcia, who spent the past 5 1/2 seasons with the White Sox. "No matter who hits a homer, we support everybody. We're like a family, that's the most important thing."
Ervin Santana will make his team debut for the White Sox. The 36-year-old right-hander will be aiming for the 150th win of his 15-year major-league career.
Santana was signed by Chicago on Feb. 22 after preseason finger surgery limited him to five starts with the Minnesota Twins last season.
The White Sox are hoping Santana can return to the form he showed during the 2017 season, when he went 16-8 with a 3.28 ERA for the Twins and was selected to his second American League All-Star team.
"Last year, I was hurt and this year I'm not," he said. "Big difference."
White Sox manager Rick Renteria told reporters on Sunday that he wasn't sure if Santana would be on a pitch count.
Santana is 7-7 in 17 career starts against the Rays with a 5.31 ERA. He hasn't faced them since Aug. 5, 2016, when he allowed two runs and six hits over 6 1/3 innings in a 6-2 win by visiting Minnesota.
Charlie Morton will make his third start of the season for the Rays.
Morton, who left the Houston Astros to sign a two-year, $30 million deal with Tampa Bay in the offseason, is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA and 14 strikeouts.
Morton has made two starts against the White Sox in his 12-year major-league career and won both. Most recently, Morton pitched against the White Sox on July 7, when he was still with the Astros, and gave up five runs and five hits in 5 2/3 innings of the 12-6 victory.
Garcia finished second in the American League with a .330 batting average in 2017, but a knee injury limited him to 93 games last season, when his average dropped to .236.
The White Sox opted not to tender a contract to Garcia and the 27-year-old signed a one-year, $6 million deal with the Rays in January.
Garcia went 2-for-5 against the White Sox on Monday and drove in his first run of the season with a second-inning single.
"Just trying to do my job and do my best for the team," he said after the win. "Last year, I played hurt the whole year with my knee. Now my knee is feeling great, so I'm happy to be here, happy to be running good, just happy."
--Field Level Media