RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The White Sox’ pitching staff is in dire need of a day off.
But with a makeup game Thursday against the Braves replacing a day off, the Sox won’t get a breather until Aug. 27. After taxing their bulk and high-leverage relievers during a three-game sweep of the Tigers, the Sox will piece together a pitching plan for the rest of the Cubs series.
“It’ll be day by day here,” manager Will Venable said before the series opener Monday at Wrigley Field. “We’re going to figure out where we’re at after today. We have some availability limitations in our bullpen that can impact some things.”
Those limitations are from Sean Newcomb pitching the last 2 ⅓ innings Sunday in Detroit after he opened the series with 1 ⅓ innings Friday, and Grant Taylor and Bryan Hudson pitching at least an inning each on Friday and Saturday.
The Sox pulled off the sweep despite using a bullpen game Friday and getting only 5 ⅓ innings from Anthony Kay on Saturday and 4 ⅓ from Sean Burke on Sunday. They followed Venable’s mantra of winning today and worrying about tomorrow later.
“That’s generally the way you go about it,” he said. “Obviously, we have to be mindful of what it means for the future. But the priority is to win the game today. So that’s the approach and why we’re not going to be making decisions on our starters for the rest of this series.”
Venable went into Game 1 hoping for a lengthy start from Luis Castillo, who gave the Sox just that last week in his second start for them. He pitched seven scoreless innings against the Reds, allowing one hit and striking out a season-high 10.
One pitcher who didn’t throw against the Tigers is Erick Fedde, whom the Sox moved to the bullpen about two weeks ago. As long as he’s not needed in the opener against the Cubs, he’s an option to start Tuesday or Wednesday. The same holds true for Jose Urquidy, who pitched 3 ⅔ innings in the bullpen game against the Tigers.
“I really don’t know,” Venable said. “We really are day-to-day here with this, just because of the usage we have had over this last series. So we’ll reserve our plan for after the game.”
Teel nearing rehab
Injured catcher Kyle Teel is a week or two away from yet another rehab assignment, this time for the sprained left ankle he suffered July 20 against the Rangers. He took batting practice Monday at Wrigley.
“We still don’t have a definite timeline,” Venable said. “We have to see how he’s feeling and how he recovers after the hitting. The most important thing is going to be the running and how he responds to that.”
Teel has been running for a couple of weeks, topping out at what Venable said was 80% speed. Whenever he returns, the Sox will have another decision to make at catcher, where they just added veteran Jake Rogers on Saturday.
Colson gets a break
Venable gave shortstop Colson Montgomery the day off, saying it was his turn for a break.
“He’s fine,” Venable said. “We talked about getting these guys days [off]. He was the one guy that was running hot for us. So I just wanted to give him a day.”
The timing was curious. Montgomery appeared to be coming out of a funk, going 3-for-8 with a double and three RBI in his last two games. Also, in his career against Cubs lefty Shota Imanaga, who started Monday, the lefty-hitting Montgomery is 1-for-2 with a homer
Broadcast news
Prime Video agreed to make Chicago Sports Network’s direct-to-consumer service, where Sox games can be streamed, available for purchase on its platform.
• ESPN picked up the Sox’ day game Sept. 16 in Cleveland.
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