The past few weeks have caught White Sox manager Will Venable making politely pointed comments on his offense's inability to do much of anything with the fastballs in the zone that their newly patient approach is coaxing.
So naturally in a seven-run relative outburst that helped the Sox avoid back-to-back sweeps at home, the biggest blow was...Lenyn Sosa golfing a hanging curve to left for a two-run shot that put the Sox up for good in the fourth.
Sosa has never been one to be hemmed in by the team's desired approach, but he also had multiple opportunities to get on trend. Former All-Star Zac Gallen took the mound for the Diamondbacks with a career-worst ERA, and in a refreshing change of pace, the Sox made him look more like his stat line than his career resume.
"Everyone was ready to go," Venable said. "We saw good swings throughout the lineup. Guys looked like they were on time, aggressive to the heater. It paid off today."
Andrew Benintendi was so ready to hit the heater that he fired on one closer to his head than his belt, launching it into the D-Backs bullpen to cut an early 2-0 deficit in half in the first. Miguel Vargas followed his two-out walk by getting a walking lead to steal second. And after Kyle Teel served the fourth-straight low-and-away offspeed pitch he saw into left for a game-tying single, Gallen probably wishes he he threw him the fastball.
"He puts together really good at-bats," Benintendi said of Teel. "Obviously he'd been going through a little bit there so it was good to see him get a few knocks, get rewarded. The guy can hit. I think that the longer he plays, the more he'll learn how other teams attack him."
Continuing to get pitched away, Teel pulled a fastball to right for a single to set up Sosa's home run in the fourth. And the pair collaborated once more in the sixth as the Sox started adding insurance in each of their last three offensive innings. Teel led off the frame with his second career automatic double, and scored when Sosa fought off 100 mph on his hands for a shank RBI single down the right field line.
Chase Meidroth, otherwise in a multi-game funk at the plate, followed singles from Michael A. Taylor and Mike Tauchman with a sacrifice fly in the seventh that served to give Grant Taylor more room to work. And Sosa finally just obliterated a 91 mph Tayler Scott heater in the eighth for his second homer of the day to cap the scoring, and to finally embrace the theme of this recap.
"First time in my career in the majors hitting two homers," Sosa said via interpreter. "The last time I did that was in 2023 in Double-A. Just very, very grateful. I would like to thank God for giving me this opportunity and to experience something like this."
Three days removed from his last appearance, Taylor was removed from his protective packaging for two innings of relief work. Sitting a mere 98.6 mph, he only struck out a batter, but that doesn't mean the contact against him was anymore convincing. Even with the Arizona order turning over in the seventh, Taylor's biggest opponent was himself, and possibly Vargas. Since after Taylor mishandled a dribbler from Pavin Smith in the seventh for an error, Vargas airmailed Meidorth on a would-be 3-6 double play. Smith would eventually score on a soft Lourdes Gurriel Jr. single.
"Taylor has nasty stuff, the hardest pitcher I’ve ever caught; throwing-wise, velocity," Teel specified, though he admitted Taylor doesn't throw hard enough to hurt his hand. "I tell him it does, but it really doesn’t."
Basketball looked like an option for him at one point, but White Sox starter Sean Burke committed himself to playing baseball. As a result, he unwittingly signed up for occurrences like striking out the first three hitters of the game and still walking back to the dugout facing a 2-0 deficit at the end of the first inning. Teel slipped while retrieving the dirted curveball that leadoff man Geraldo Perdomo struck out on, allowing him to reach and score when Josh Naylor lifted a hanging curve for a two-out, two-run shot to right.
The subsequent breaking balls from Burke bore greater resemblance to the Perdomo curve. He got Gurriel Jr. to chase a slider off the edge to strand a pair of runners in the third, and concluded his five innings by striking out Pavin Smith with a bouncer, two pitches before Teel gunned down Perdomo at second.
"Obviously that one Naylor hit out kind of stayed up in the zone, but I thought overall the curveball was good and the fastball command was much better today," Burke said. "The fastball kind of sets the plane with all my breaking stuff, so when I'm able to sync those two up and get the fastball to spots I need to get to, then it just kind of makes it a lot easier for me to throw my breaking stuff and kind of gives that a little bit more margin for error."
Venable indicated otherwise, but with the way Burke was operating, it's fair to speculate that a starter who isn't getting constantly mentioned as someone who needs their innings managed would get brought back out for sixth at 83 pitches. But when multiple innings of Taylor were at the ready before an off day, more wasn't needed.
Bullet points:
*Luis Robert Jr. got pinch hit for after a single defensive inning of work. While the timing was weird enough to spur some #HugWatch speculation, the more familiar news that Robert was hurt eventually bubbled out. The team said Robert has left hamstring soreness and is still being evaluated. One Sox official was wisened enough to point out that if a Robert trade was imminent enough to get him pulled in the first inning, he probably wouldn't have started at all.
"Feel like he’s in an OK spot," said Venable, who indicated Robert hurt himself pursuing a fly ball. "Give him the off day, see where we’re at on Friday."
*This was Sosa's first career multi-home run game, and four RBI is a career-high for him.
*All three Diamondback runs were unearned. Usually that's enough for a victory and in general, the Sox defense was porous with two errors, a passed ball and a few more shaky plays. Teel even let a would-be game-ending popup hit the grass.
*Ketel Marte got a nice applause before his first at-bat and a supportive message on the videoboard.
*Naylor has nine career home runs against the White Sox in 52 games. Even if that's not as ridiculous as you expected, it is still the most he has against any team.
