RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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One thing seemed certain Friday as the White Sox opened a homestand against the division-rival Guardians at Rate Field, fresh — make that bone-weary — off a bonkers 12-11, 13-inning loss in Boston in the second-longest major league game of the pitch-clock era (since 2023):
They needed starting pitcher Noah Schultz to hunker down and give them a bunch of innings.
Instead, Schultz got one out in a shaky first inning before his manager, Will Venable, committed what appeared to be the gaffe of the season — making a mound visit two batters after pitching coach Zach Bove went out there and, by rule, forcing Schultz’s removal from the game.
If that was part of the game plan, no one in the ballpark could have discerned it. It was reminiscent of an epic gaffe by former Sox manager Terry Bevington in 1997 — also against Cleveland — when he trudged to the mound and motioned to the bullpen for a right-hander despite the minor detail that nobody was warming up.
Venable seems pretty sharp on the whole, though, which made this a real surprise. He later acknowledged the mistake during an in-game interview with Chicago Sports Network’s Brooke Fletcher.
“That was a mistake by me,” he said. “I lost track of the first visit there.”
As the Sox took the field with four dozen games to go and a three-game lead over the Guardians and Twins in the American League Central, the last thing they needed was more negative momentum. Getting swept in three games by the Red Sox was plenty on that front — to say nothing of some of the developments therein, among them Davis Martin seemingly tipping pitches and rookie Sam Antonacci chicken-winging Willson Contreras on the basepaths.
Instead, they watched disaster unfold after David Sandlin — recalled from Triple-A Charlotte earlier in the day — had to get loose on the fly and take the mound for only the fifth time as a big leaguer. Sandlin, the Sox’ No. 7-ranked prospect according to MLB.com , came through with a quality performance for a while before getting rocked by an Angel Martinez grand slam in the Guardians’ five-run fifth inning. Sandlin left in the sixth, the Sox trailing 8-1.
All of which has made it a tad harder to believe in the fortunes of a team that has played sub-.500 baseball since the All-Star break. Then again, welcome to the AL Central, where such stretches are a way of life. Only the Tigers were above .500 since the break, but they just waved the white towel by dealing mega-ace Tarik Skubal.
With four dozen games to go, a motto was suggested to some of the Sox:
“48 Ours.”
As in, let’s not screw up the remainder of the season and we can raise a division banner.
“Definitely,” Antonacci said. “There’s obviously still a lot of time left, and a lot of things can happen, but we have the team to keep grinding and keep winning and put ourselves in a good spot. I think we’ve got a really good shot. It’s just: How bad to we want it?”
Martin hasn’t been at his best since before the break, but he’s not backing down.
“I like where my stuff is at,” he said. “It’s not a game for weak-minded people.”
His eyes popped at the mention of “four dozen.”
“When you put it like that, it really doesn’t sound like [many games left],” he said. “I think we’ve put ourselves in a great situation. We’ve weathered a lot of storms. We’re a good team.”
Infielder Chase Meidroth kept a foot hovering over the brake pedal when discussing a division title.
“I’m pretty impatient — I kind of want all that stuff to come now — but we all know we’ve got to take it day by day,” he said.
Before the game, general manager Chris Getz noted much of this season came with a certain “baseball purity and innocence” for the Sox, who weren’t expected to amount to this much.
“Now, all of a sudden, you start paying attention to the standings or what another team is doing, it’s a bit of a distraction,” Getz said.
The Sox might have been a distracted team in Boston. Their manager and his staff on the bench might not have been all that locked in Friday. That’s not going to get it done the rest of the way.
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