The start: World Series, Judge, White Sox

As the World Series continues, we’ll be keeping an eye on the following three things in the baseball world all day today:

1. World Series Game 3:

The Dodgers won both home games over the weekend, but after a day of travel yesterday, the series resumes tonight at 8:08 p.m. local time at the Yankees’ home stadium. Right-handed Clarke Smith will be on the mound for New York after posting an impressive 2.85 ERA in a season shortened to just 16 starts due to injury. So far in the postseason, Schmidt has tied two starts and has a 3.86 ERA with six strikeouts and three walks in 9 1/3 innings.

His opponent tonight will be the Dodgers right-hander Walker Buhlerwho struggled with a 5.38 ERA in 16 regular-season starts this year and gave up six runs in five frames in his NLDS start against the Padres. Despite this shaky track record this year, Buehler managed to pitch four scoreless innings, striking out six of them, in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets. The Dodgers are currently counting on a star hitter on offense Shohei Ohtani back in the lineup after a shoulder injury spooked baseball fans Saturday night.

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

With the question of Ohtani’s status likely answered, the series’ other likely MVP winner faces questions of his own. Aaron Richter has struggled with a meager .105/.280/.325 average in 50 plate appearances in 11 postseason games this year. Of course, any hitter can have a rough patch in such a small sample, and Judge even had two separate 11-game stretches not dissimilar to this one in April alone. However, his slump has only worsened since the start of the World Series, as he has had six hits in nine appearances at the plate over the last two games while yielding just one hit. Can Judge return to his dominant regular season form in time to help the Yankees erase their current 0-2 deficit?

3. Is the White Sox manager search intensifying?

There was noticeable movement on the leadership front in Chicago this weekend. Yesterday it was discovered that three candidates were not in the running for the White Sox job, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggested last night that the Sox were “taking a look at” the Rangers’ assistant manager Will Venable for the role. Heyman cautioned that there is no sign yet that an agreement has been reached, but the report nonetheless reinforces the movement emerging in the search for the South Siders’ next manager. Other candidates not yet known to have dropped out of the race include the current interim captain Grady SizemoreGuardians bench coach Craig Albernaz, former Marlins manager Skip Schumakerformer Angels captain Phil NevinDodgers bench coach Danny Lehmann and Cardinals bench coach Daniel Descalso.