The Opener: World Series, Judge, White Sox

As the World Series continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:

1. World Series Game 3:

The Dodgers won both of their home games over the weekend, but after a travel day yesterday the series will resume this evening on the Yankees’ home turf at 8:08pm local time. Right-hander Clarke Schmidt will be on the mound for New York after posting an impressive 2.85 ERA in a season shortened to just 16 starts by injury. In the postseason so far, Schmidt has drawn two starts and sports a 3.86 ERA with six strikeouts and three walks in 9 1/3 innings of work.

His opponent this evening will be Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, who struggled to a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular season starts this year and was shelled for six runs in five frames during his NLDS start against the Padres. Despite that shaky track record this year, Buehler did manage to put up four scoreless innings while striking out six in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets. On offense, meanwhile, the Dodgers are currently expecting to have star slugger Shohei Ohtani back in the lineup after a shoulder injury Saturday night gave baseball fans a scare.

2. Can Judge break out of his slump before it’s too late?

With the question of Ohtani’s status likely answered, the other likely MVP winner in the series is facing his own set of questions. Aaron Judge has struggled to a meager .105/.280/.325 slash in 50 plate appearances across 11 postseason games this year. Any hitter can have a tough stretch in a sample that small, of course, and Judge even had two separate 11-game stretches not dissimilar to this one back in April alone. His slump has deepened even more since the World Series began, however, as he’s struck out six times in nine trips to the plate over the last two games while collecting just one hit. Can Judge get back to his dominant regular season form in time to help the Yankees fight back from their current 0-2 deficit?

3. Is the White Sox managerial search heating up?

This weekend saw some noticeable movement on the managerial front in Chicago. Three candidates were noted to be out of the running for the White Sox vacancy yesterday, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggested last night that the Sox were taking a “hard look” at Rangers associate manager Will Venable for the role. Heyman cautioned that there was no indication that an agreement was close just yet, but the report nonetheless adds to the sense of movement that’s begun to surround the search for the South Siders’ next manager. Other candidates who are not yet known to have been eliminated from the running include current interim skipper Grady Sizemore, Guardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Angels skipper Phil Nevin, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.