Pedro Grifol did not invent, nor bring a notable amount of innovation to the practice of major league managers saying that their players are pressing, and that simply relaxing will restore them to their career norms.
But in his answer to a Sunday pregame question about whether this is his handwriting Michael Soroka, Grifol did start to slip into the realm of grappling with the dread that comes with a team that cannot score.
“Where we get in trouble is a leadoff triple and thinking we're going to lose the game when that guy scores,” Grifol said. “That's where we start getting into trouble, as opposed to 'You know what, I'm going to make good pitches now and if we give up that run, it's still 1-0 and we're in the game,' as opposed to walking a couple guys because you don't want that guy to score and you end up giving up four or five. That's what's important for us.”
Three years ago, Nicky Lopez went 22-for-23 on stolen bases in a fabulous 2021 performance that Grifol talked about trying to channel all spring. So far this year he’s 0-for-4, and his four caught stealings lead the league. However, Lopez said three of those incidences came on hit-and-runs, including a double steal where his main function was to be a decoy so Braden Shewmake could score.
“I have to be unselfish about it, giving myself up to get a run in,” Lopez said. “I’ve had some tough luck so far, but that’s baseball. Now it’s about what do we see, what Pedro puts on, green light, red light and just trust it.”
Paul DeJong is trying to be in his own head less, less focused on mechanics and more just reactive at the plate, which he feels leads to better swing decisions in the long run. I’ve talked to him about it and was going to use a quote, but he’s struck out in half of his 30 plate appearances, with chase and in-zone contact rates that would be the worst of his career so far, so maybe let’s wait a beat on that.
By any reasonable interpretation, Grifol did not say anything revealing about when Eloy Jiménez going out on a rehab assignment. But this is the sort of avoidant answer managers usually give right before a player heads out on a rehab assignment.
"He had a good session today. I'll talk to James (Kruk) here now after we're done here and talk to Eloy and see when that happens."
First Pitch
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Lineups:
| Reds | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Jonathan India, 2B | 1 | Robbie Grossman, RF |
| Will Benson, CF | 2 | Andrew Benintendi, LF |
| Christian Encarnacion-Strand, 1B | 3 | Andrew Vaughn, DH |
| Spencer Steer, LF | 4 | Gavin Sheets, 1B |
| Jake Fraley, RF | 5 | Korey Lee, C |
| Elly De La Cruz,. SS | 6 | Dominic Fletcher, CF |
| Jeimer Candelario, 3B | 7 | Lenyn Sosa, 3B |
| Nick Martini, DH | 8 | Paul DeJong, SS |
| Tyler Stephenson, C | 9 | Nicky Lopez, 2B |
| Graham Ashcraft | SP | Michael Soroka |
