It gets brought up a lot but bears repeating, the White Sox can match their franchise record for most losses in a season (107) Saturday night, with the entire unforgiving month of September to go.
It's not what you want.
"It’s tough, it’s hard to stay at the same spot, to stay positive in spite of the losses," said interim manager Grady Sizemore. "Even though the record’s not where we want it to be, we still have four more weeks of games where we can get better, we compete against some of the better teams in the league, playoff teams and show them we’re not giving up, we’re not going to be a pushover, we’re not going to fold here at the end of the year. We’re going to fight, you’re going to have to earn everything and we’re still coming out here competing expecting to win."
Jairo Iriarte and Zach DeLoach are on the taxi squad for Saturday before being added as September call-ups on Sunday when the roster expands by two. While the home run power that would make him an intriguing long-term option in an outfield corner has maintained curiously absent with just six long balls all year, DeLoach has earned a look via the old fashioned method of being the most productive healthy hitter in Triple-A.
The 26-year-old has hit .322/.409/.507 since July 1 while playing a surprising amount of center field. So while DeLoach doesn't arrive in Chicago with some big mandate for everyday time, the White Sox lineup is not some impregnable fortress that will keep him out if he hits the ground running.
"He’s going to play all over," Sizemore said. "It will be nice to have an extra outfielder just to give [Andrew Benintendi] an extra day off and then another at-bat who can play all three positions. Mix him in there in all three, mostly in the corners. The plan is to get him as much work as I can."
Benintendi is hitting .271/.361/.600 in August, so maybe don't scoff at that line about him as much as you were planning to.
Iriarte is about 35 innings past his previous professional career-high, and is not really "ready" to jump into a major league rotation by any traditional measure. Senior advisor to pitching Brian Bannister (and there will be more from him about Iriarte on Sox Machine soon) has expressed a fondness of letting starting pitching prospects finish out the year in the major league bullpen to get a taste of how their stuff plays at the highest level, and Iriarte reads as an archetypal example of that approach.
Sizemore said that Iriarte will be working out of the bullpen in single inning outings, with multiple days off in between, and always entering at the start of an inning. Essentially, it's the type of usage that only a September call-up could justify, because a normal member of the bullpen has to be more versatile.
"It’s going to be a very slow transition," Sizemore said of the 22-year-old right-hander. "I want to minimize the exposure. I want to do it in a comfortable way for him where he’s not coming in in the middle of the inning or in a tight jam. I just kind of want an inning here, an inning there with some time off because he’s not used to pitching every day. He’s used to starting, so I don’t want to put him in jeopardy or risk anything by throwing multiple innings or multiple days in a row."
The great Cheryl Raye-Stout asked Sizemore at the end of his media session Saturday if White Sox players are receiving therapy to deal with this season.
Multiple players--Nick Nastrini being a recent example--have lauded the work of team psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Fishbein during this season, but the question of how are they coping with all this trauma has certainly occurred to any media member who has trudged around a quiet White Sox postgame clubhouse.
"Guys always have that access if they wanted it," Sizemore said of Fishbein. "The state of mind is not a concern of mind for the players. When you go in that locker room, you talk to them in the cage or talk to them when they’re doing work, everyone’s in good spirits. They’re still enjoying playing ball and playing hard. We obviously want to win and the losses are frustrating, but I think we’re all professionals here and we have a job to do."
José Quintana has only made two starts against the White Sox in his career, but owns a 5.25 ERA over 12 innings of work. He loves the Sox too much!
The 13-1 K-BB ratio suggests there are limits to his affections.
First Pitch: White Sox vs. Mets
TV: NBCSCH
Lineups:
| White Sox | Mets | |
|---|---|---|
| Corey Julks, RF | 1 | Francisco Lindor, SS |
| Luis Robert Jr., CF | 2 | Brandon Nimmo, CF |
| Andrew Benintendi, LF | 3 | Mark Vientos, 3B |
| Andrew Vaughn, 1B | 4 | Pete Alonso, 1B |
| Gavin Sheets, DH | 5 | Jesse Winker, LF |
| Korey Lee, C | 6 | J.D. Martinez, DH |
| Lenyn Sosa, 2B | 7 | Starling Marte, RF |
| Miguel Vargas, 3B | 8 | Jeff McNeil, 2B |
| Jacob Amaya, SS | 9 | Francisco Alvarez, C |
| Davis Martin | SP | José Quintana |
