Pregame notes: Another game obligated to be played by league rules

There is unfortunately no insight I can provide from literally inside the White Sox clubhouse that matches the level of detail of the team's inner workings present in a stray paragraph of a Bob Nightengale column.

But I can confirm that waiting for teammates to be wrenched away in the middle of a 27-80 season and a 13-game losing streak is not the feeling players were seeking when they sought to make a professional career out of baseball.

"I went through it last year, you never know what to expect during this time of year in baseball," said Korey Lee, who will at least have some clarity of who he's playing with for the rest of the year in two days time. "Like it or not, that's what it's going to be. And we're going to find ways to have success and continue to get better and we're going to welcome anyone into this clubhouse with open arms and we're going to get to work."

-- Nightengale reported in a Sunday USA Today column that A.J. Pierzynski is emerging as a candidate to be the next White Sox manager. Beyond that yes, I too have listened to Chris Getz duck repeated entreaties to give some sort of endorsement to Pedro Grifol, and Pierzynski has made it clear in the past that he'd be interested in the job, my first thought is that the former All-Star catcher no longer being a team ambassador this year doesn't seem to be nearly as big of an issue as it was made out to be at the time.

-- That same piece also claimed the White Sox are unwilling to trade Erick Fedde in the division, despite multiple suitors. This immediately provokes fan concern that the Sox are closing themselves off from getting the best offer, or wrongly focused on the AL Central title as their ultimate goal, or deluded into thinking a return to contention in divisional play is achievable over the life of Fedde's contract. Or all three. I can't pretend to know your precise level of concern during the worst season in franchise history.

I can at least assure they have other Fedde suitors than the Guardians and Twins. They've at least tried to wrest away former top-5 prospect Jordan Walker from the Cardinals in talks over Fedde, per multiple sources.

-- The Sox have scored four runs in a game once during this 13-game skid, and Nicky Lopez returning to the leadoff spot is very much in the vein of "trying something new."

"He gives us good at-bats, he puts the ball in play," Grifol said. "We’ll see if we can find a way to get him on base and see if we can create something, score some runs. We need to score some runs. Our pitching is giving us a chance to win and we’ve got to step on the plate if we want to win some baseball games."

-- Both Grifol and Garrett Crochet have hinted at him having a 75-80 pitch limit for this game in prior days, but Grifol was more cagey about it Sunday for whatever reason.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Mariners

TV: NBCSCH

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