Pedro Grifol did not seem very optimistic earlier this afternoon that Monday night's game will be played, and even his biggest haters here will have to give him this one.
A little before 5:30pm local time, the White Sox announced this game as postponed for rain with a straight doubleheader beginning Tuesday at 3:40pm. They banged it, you might say.
The pitching matchups will remain the same, with Chris Flexen facing Trevor Williams in Game 1, and Erick Fedde versus Mitchell Parker in the nightcap. An off day on Thursday and the continued presence of Brad Keller likely staves off the need for any roster machinations to save the rotation.
For Korey Lee enthusiasts, the good news is that he almost has to start at least one of these games. The bad news is he was already in the starting lineup for Monday. Now, it's time for notes.
It takes a duffel bag roughly the size of the man himself to hold all of Danny Mendick’s baseball equipment, and the 30-year-old infielder was packing it with a purpose on Monday afternoon.
“Going to head down to Charlotte, play a couple of games and then meet back up with the team,” Mendick said.
Mendick’s back injury was the genesis of Bryan Ramos joining the White Sox's 26-man roster, but the utility man took infield reps at second base on Monday afternoon and did not seem fazed by the possibility that Ramos will still be manning third base when he returns from his rehab assignment.
“I’m sure, come back up and just bounce around and play where they need me,” Mendick said. “That’s the best part about this game, that’s why you want to play at the highest level, to play and compete. You should never be handed anything. For me, going back out there and earning a spot is what I’ve always done.”
Before wind and rain drove both of them off the field Monday afternoon, Ramos was on his knees on the infield grass with third base coach Eddie Rodríguez, working on slow rollers but also throwing from a lower arm slot. You will most often find Ramos setting his feet and firing over the top rather than throwing on the run, and the Sox like that the 22-year-old opts for accuracy over rushing the play. But Rodríguez wants to slowly introduce the lower arm slot to give Ramos more options on plays where he has less time.
“Swinging bunt, slow roller, a ball that chops and dies in front of him where he has to use speed to get to it,” Rodríguez explained. “And he doesn’t have time to set his feet and [throw overhand], it’s easier to catch that ball and just flick it [throw underhand] out of the glove and make up time.”
Luis Robert Jr. will be trying to run at 90 percent intensity over the next three days, and if that goes well, he will be wailing on Arizona Complex League pitching by the end of the week in games.
Manager Pedro Grifol reiterated that Robert is over the setback in recovery of his hip flexor and is having no issues pushing his intensity level.
“He’s so eager and hungry to get back, I think his mind’s in a really good place,” Grifol said. “He’s actually pushing to get back. But I’ve seen it both ways. I’ve seen guys that become a little afraid to really get after it, mentally, because they don’t want to get that feeling again that took them out of games for a couple months. I’ve seen it both ways. In this particular case, he’s so eager and hungry to get back that he’s actually pushing. On the mental side of it, he’s doing really well.”
Dominic Leone’s back tightness probably will not require a rehab assignment. He is scheduled to throw some live batting practice soon and is eligible to return on the first day of next week’s series in Toronto.
For the first time since suffering his adductor strain, Yoán Moncada began hitting left-handed on Monday. He spent the prior week only hitting right-handed. He has also been taking some ground balls at the team complex in Arizona, per Grifol.
Since that encouraging home run to right-center in St. Louis, Eloy Jiménez is 4-for-28 with a walk, two doubles and a 50 percent ground ball rate. Ah, well.
“When you miss 12,14 days and you come back it takes a little bit,” Grifol said. “But that’s been a few weeks now. Now it’s mechanics and timing, where he’s got to feel comfortable with the rhythm and timing of his approach. But it can happen at any time. It can be, he hit that ball in the gap two nights ago where we thought OK, here we go. It can be an AB, a game where he gets three or four balls in the air to feel good and all of a sudden it takes off. It’s there. The bat speed is there, the exit velos are there, everything is there. All we have to do is make sure the timing is right so he can get the ball in the air.”
