Pregame notes: Another bad April in the books

Sitting at a 5-20 mark for the month of April, this White Sox team needs a win Wednesday night to match the six games the worst team in franchise history captured in the opening month of last season. Misery loves historical precedent, and the White Sox have now lost 20 games in three-straight Aprils, and haven't had a winning month of April since 2021.

"We've targeted these key areas for us that we think are really important," Will Venable said when asked to assess his team's first month. "There's a lot of different ways you can measure how we're playing, and certainly our record is one of them, and you can go through any metric you want and look at things. We've chosen the things that are important to us that we're going to take an honest evaluation at. And a month in, we have. And those are areas where there's some of these things that we're doing really well and a lot of them that we're not. And that's going to be the focus for us and really honing in on these different things that we know lead to wins, and attack those areas."

Is winning games one of those key areas?

"That’s at the top of the list, is getting a win, man," Venable said. "That's what we're putting all our energy into."

At least that's settled.

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Tyler Gilbert's mad run of starting three of the last four games has been halted by him being optioned to Triple-A Charlotte. He was still in the clubhouse on Wednesday, so it's not an urgent reassignment, but Venable also termed it as more about team needs than a breather for Gilbert.

"He’s in a good spot and he did a great job for us," Venable said. "As you look at this 13-game stretch with some of these lineups that we're going to face, the construction of our bullpen and what we need changes a little bit. And so we're going to value some length in the bullpen to get us through these 13 days. Gilbert's done a great job, and there's going to be a time real soon that that changes and he's going to be back here helping us out."

Fraser Ellard was activated from the injured list to take Gilbert spot, and while he is open to opening, he has mostly worked in leverage in the early going. Ellard strained his right hamstring while sprinting during a conditioning drill earlier this month, but said the leg was back to full strength after a week and a half of rest.

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Venable is confident that the improvement in pre-pitch setup that Miguel Vargas has made to produce shiny defensive metrics at third base will translate to first, allowing for an opportunity to take Gage Workman out for a spin. Just seeing what they have in Workman definitely is the general attitude Venable has about giving the Cubs Rule 5 draft pick his first start in a White Sox uniform.

"We're going to find out [what Workman can provide]," Venable said. "Left-handed hitting guy, big athlete and that can do a lot of stuff on the field. We expect him to put a good at-bat together, to be able to steal a base, impact our offense and also a solid defender over there at third base. We're going to mix and match here and get the best out of our roster the best we can. And part of that will be seeing what Gage can do over at third base."

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Luis Robert Jr. is mostly confounded by his slow offensive start.

"That has been difficult for me to understand," Robert said via interpreter. "If I’m getting walks, I’m not swinging at pitches that are out of the strike zone, right? Then why is my offense is not producing? Why am I not hitting the way that I can? I think it’s because I’ve been missing the mistakes. That’s the only explanation I can find right now."

But he has less quibbling about how active he's been able to be on the basepaths, as 11-for-15 on stolen bases is a lot of action for someone with a .283 on-base percentage.

"99 percent of the time he can have a green light," Venable said. "He's calculated and he's fearless. Those are really two great attributes, along with the speed, to steal bases. Excited, especially when he starts getting on base more and starts doing his thing offensively, what he can do as far as stealing bases and putting pressure on the defense."

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Sure, Shane Smith is facing his former organization, but imagine how often Brewers starter Tobias Myers thinks about the 15.92 ERA he ran up in 13 innings with the Charlotte Knights in 2022.

First pitch: White Sox vs. Brewers

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WTRO 1200 AM (Spanish)

Lineups:

Note: Bryce Turang was originally leading off for the Brewers and was scratched due to illness.