Pregame notes: Team meeting potential

While Will Venable is not the type to flip tables, nor really project negativity in any way, the White Sox could easily inspire a team meeting on Wednesday.

The Rockies are 8-40, the Orioles and A's both have worse run differentials, but the White Sox are still undisputedly the worst team in the American League on record, and other clubs tend to take losing to them as cause to re-evaluate.

The White Sox have won a pair of series over second-place teams (Astros, Red Sox) this season, but even their most recent triumph over the thoroughly .500 Reds triggered a team meeting after the White Sox won the first two games in Cincinnati. A rubber match victory over the Mariners would make for their first series win over a sitting first place club since the Sox took three out of four from the Cleveland Guardians over a year ago.

"He’ll have his work cut out for him with this lineup, but I expect him to go out and do his thing," Will Venable said of starter Shane Smith.

Should Smith pull it off, which would call on the Sox to improve upon their 1-8 record in his starts, it'd serve as a shot across the bow for a Mariners team that otherwise looks positioned to cruise to an AL West title. There are few perks to being a last place club in an open-ended rebuild, but inducing panic in the other side with any level of success is one of them.

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Bryse Wilson feels he's in no position to be sore about being moved out of the White Sox rotation for Adrian Houser, not after allowing 16 runs over 21 innings since Martín Pérez went down with a flexor strain.

"You can't really be upset or anything, except at myself," said Wilson. "They have to make the decisions they have to make. I just wasn't getting the job done. But excited to be back in the bullpen. Made a couple adjustments, so hopefully it translates to success."

Wilson was appreciative that he still got four days off from game action after his last start, which he said gave him an opportunity to tweak some things before returning to relief work. He's re-situating himself to the third base side of the rubber, something he did throughout his strong 2023 season as a Brewers reliever, and believes it will make the crossfire nature of his lower arm slot play up.

"Moved over because when I did lower my slot, I was releasing it farther out toward the side, so I figured moving over I'd still create the same angle," Wilson said. "But just looking at the numbers, it wasn't doing that. I kind of went back to '23, which was probably my best year and just looking and comparing some of those numbers. The angle I was creating then was super beneficial and just gonna try to do that again."

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If anyone was of the absurd notion that Jordan Leasure cemented himself as the closer Tuesday night, think again. This White Sox bullpen has no such designations.

"We just are going to match up," Venable said. "There are spots in the game we can’t just choose which spots we line up with the ninth inning. These guys are all capable of getting outs. It’s just a matter of when it happens in the game for them. I think there’s some bullpens that are constructed where you can have a seventh, eighth, ninth inning guy if you want. Ours just isn’t constructed like that."

Speaking of the bullpen, Fraser Ellard has just started playing catch as he works his way back from a strained lat. He's feeling good, but it's probably a 3-4 week progression to build him up to full strength.

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With 39 stolen bases, the White Sox are...barely above league average. But their success rate of 85 percent--highlighted by Chase Meidroth's 7-for-7 start--is the best in the AL.

"We've got to find a way to get extra bases and put pressure on the defense and other pitchers, so that’s going to be part of it," Venable said. "We like to run as much as possible. Sometimes we are not in the right spot to do it, but yeah, that’s going to be a weapon for us we have to utilize."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Mariners

TV: CHSN

Radio: ESPN 1000 AM, WRTO 1200 AM

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