Pregame notes: On the doorstep of infamy

The White Sox just need to string together a season-high six-game winning streak to avoid being cemented as the worst MLB team in modern history, and keep a small cache of increasingly annoyed national reporters on their tail through the end of the year.

"There’s no way to describe this," Luis Robert Jr. said via interpreter. "You guys have seen the results. The record is there and that is what it is."

Sox players are still struck by the surreal nature of Tuesday night, with frustrated fans seemingly rooting against them as the potential for ugly history loomed over their necks like an axe. As a group, they fundamentally understand it's not about them as individuals and that the ire is directed higher up, but still feel like they're wearing it when fans are applauding their worst moments.

And it'll probably be a similar mood in the ballpark Wednesday night!

"It’s not where we want to be, we want to win and it’s not the losses that we want to be putting up there," said Grady Sizemore. "More important than focusing on that as the only thing to motivate you is getting better as individuals and as a team. We’re going to go into the offseason from a coaching standpoint, have a game plan for how we want to attack spring training and get better and utilize the guys we have to maximize our chances to win every day."

Wait a second, spring training? Sizemore is officially under consideration to stay in the manager's office after all, and to the extent that players ever share their true feelings about leadership on record, he has their support too.

"Their support means a lot," Sizemore said. "Again, in such a year where I’m sure everyone will look at a lot of the negative in a loss of a year, I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of joy just being on the field with these guys and working with them, getting to know them and learning from them and learning from the staff. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. It’s been one of the highlights of my career."

Garrett Crochet was pushed back to Friday against the Tigers while everyone in attendance for Fan Appreciation Day on Thursday will get to see Chris Flexen's swan song for the season. Extra precautionary rest is the typical reason anything is done in regards to Crochet's usage, but Sizemore wanted to spin some notion of playing spoiler for the Tigers into it.

"With Detroit where they’re at, I think it’s gonna make for good baseball," Sizemore said. "They’re gonna be competing for a playoff spot. We wanna throw our best guy up against this team that’s fighting for a playoff spot. These are our rivals. It’s gonna be a big series for them, and we wanna do our best to make it good for baseball and make it a competitive series and fight and try to spoil the party.”

Edgar Quero's task for this week in the majors is to learn the ropes before making a real push to wrest away the starting catcher role from Korey Lee next season. But there are some work-in-progress elements for the White Sox top catching prospect even after a breakout year in many ways fueled by his physique.

"Edgar will tell you himself: he needs to get his body in better shape so he can endure a full season," said farm director Paul Janish. "Does he continue to need to work on defense? Yes. Can he get quicker and can the arm strength get a bit better? Sure. But I believe the defensive ability and the makeup is what's going to give him the opportunity to play at the major league level, and at that position, given the opportunity to hopefully to become an offensive player relative to his position."

The White Sox have not won a Davis Martin start since Sept. 30, 2022.