Pregame notes: Fan misconduct fallout

With the dazzling innovations of social media and pervasive sports gambling, receiving poisonous invective is part of life as a professional athlete more than ever. So it really speaks to the remarkable cruelty of the fan in attendance Tuesday night at Rate Field, who reportedly invoked the tragic death of Ketel Marte's mother in taunts during the game, that fellow players are finding a unique level of outrage and horror in response.

"I've never experienced anything like that," said Josh Rojas, Marte's former teammate in Arizona. "There's definitely been times where you feel like you have to say something back or stand up for yourself, I guess. But yeah, luckily I've never had anything quite to that extent, and you always hope that that doesn't happen to anybody."

A White Sox spokesperson confirmed that the fan in question has been banned indefinitely from Rate Field, but also stipulated that much of the process from here on out is turning over their findings to the league office and letting them decide and enforce whatever further measures might be necessary.

"I know that there's precedent for those types of things," Will Venable said of the ban. "That type of behavior is not acceptable here and then, absolutely, anybody who is engaging in that kind of stuff is not going to be welcome."

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Davis Martin doesn't exactly know when he'll be back from his forearm strain, but he has enough experience to insist that he's not on the path to an inevitable surgery that many might associate with his injury.

"The only nice thing about having TJ is you know what TJ feels like and this wasn't anything near what that was," Martin said. "Just soft tissue stuff that we felt like there was no reason to push through."

Martin hopes to start playing catch again in the next few days, and the main tension in trying to figure out his timeline is that he doesn't want to fully close the window on returning to action prior to the All-Star break. But the repeated messaging about how the team has no Earthly reason to rush him back makes a longer path more likely.

"Just making sure we're doing it right, and doing it right the first time and not waste anybody's time by going out there and going too quick and having to reset," Martin said. "We want to do this one time and be done with it."

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Venable said that Jonathan Cannon not only came out feeling good after his three scoreless innings in his rehab outing at Triple-A Charlotte, but got up to throw 10 more pitches in the bullpen afterward. So the Sox are considering it more as a four-inning, 60-pitch rehab outing for Cannon, which makes it easier to envision him being thrown directly into the major league rotation for his next outing.

That would also be the only real reason to put off making a clear statement on Cannon's next step.

"We’re going to talk through it today, really give him the day to see where he’s at," Venable said. "Although it’s all positive and we’ll make that decision in the coming days. We want him back as soon as we can."

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Sean Burke will need to be on his game Wednesday, as the Diamondbacks offer no shortage of potent lefty hitters.

"We're looking for him to be aggressive with the fastball, be aggressive in the zone," Venable said. "He's got his work cut out for him with this lineup. We've seen what they've done this series and the damage they can do, so got to go out there and compete and attack the zone."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Diamondbacks

TV: CHSN

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

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