Since arriving in the majors, Colson Montgomery's performance had a lot of elements that will make it palatable to wait on his development--good defense, sound at-bats--but maybe not enough instances of a big ol' fella whacking the crap of the ball to inform the viewing public what the big deal is supposed to be.
The last two nights at Steinbrenner Field have remedied that, and this glimpse of Montgomery's future also seems to involve the White Sox winning games via offense.
A day after Montgomery launched his first career home run, the game found him repeatedly on Wednesday night with moments where big swings could flip the outcome, and the rookie obliged twice in a five-RBI performance that will suffice as the best night of his career to date.
Sox hitters opened the second inning with three-straight singles off Rays starter Taj Bradley, with Luis Robert's sawed-off grounder making the first cut to a 4-0 deficit, before Montgomery blistered a plate-splitting cutter out to right-center to tie the game. Six innings later, walks to Robert and Andrew Benintendi sandwiched a pair of singles against reliever Kevin Kelly, setting up the sidewinding righty to face Montgomery with the bases juiced with the Sox down a run in the eighth. Jumping on a 1-1 plate-splitter again, Montgomery hit one harder (112.2 mph) than his first blast but on a lower trajectory, setting for a two-run double off the wall to put the Sox ahead for good at 8-7.
After the Sox wasted three walks that came behind Montgomery's big blast in the second, a bigger crooked number looked like it might go by the boards again in the eighth until Rays second baseman José Caballero intervened. He airmailed the throw home with the infield drawn in on a soft Brooks Baldwin grounder, allowing Robert to score on the contact play and extending the inning for a pair of RBI singles from Mike Tauchman and Chase Meidroth to wrap up a six-run eighth.
Those insurance runs would be decisive, as with Grant Taylor deployed earlier, Will Venable cobbled together the last two innings with three veteran relievers that didn't make the opening day roster. Steven Wilson got one out before loading the bases in the eighth by clipping Yandy Díaz with a wayward fastball, and Tyler Gilbert walked a run in before inducing a pair of groundouts to preserve a two-run lead for the ninth. If Josh Rojas gloving a hot smash from Junior Caminero to close the eight felt like an escape, it was just a prelude for Dan Altavilla becoming the fifth Sox reliever with two saves or more.
He only walked a pair in the ninth, but it seemed wilder than that since a couple pitches flew to the backstop. And if not for Jake Mangum overrunning first and getting ruled out on review trying to dive bag into the bag, Altavilla's throw to first sailing past Miguel Vargas would have loomed larger. Instead, a Chandler Simpson lineout ended a wild night with the tying runs aboard.
If missing bats seemed like the one missing element to lift Jonathan Cannon's profile above yeoman back-end starter, Wednesday night in Tampa made it seem more like a Faustian bargain. There was clearly something in the scouting report that supported his switch to a four-seam heavy attack, as he glided to a career-high nine strikeouts.
But the switch didn't occur until Cannon had yielded a pair of two-run first innings pokes on sinkers taken to the opposite field by Díaz and Junior Caminero to put the home team up 4-0 out of the chute. Neither eclipsed 370 feet projected distance at what's playing as the most homer-happy park in the American League, but Kyle Teel has waited too long for his first career home run to invite any extra scrutiny on the 336-foot wall-scraper he made out of a middle-in 1-0 heater in the sixth.
The new modus operandi didn't really suit Cannon anyway. After righting the ship to retire 10 of 11 hitters, he hit Caminero to load the bases with one in the fifth to end his night. When Brandon Eisert was greeted with a Josh Lowe RBI single off his shoetops before Baldwin biffed a Mangum flare to left for another run, it looked like the run of sloppiness that traditionally sinks young teams on the road. Teel scrambled to retrieve a wild pitch to cap a strange strike 'em out, tag 'em out double play to end the sixth, but Eisert came back out and yielded a Taylor Walls leadoff double that scored on a Caballero single off Taylor to build a three-run Rays lead after seven.
That used to be enough.
Bullet points:
*With Teel off the schneid just before he reached 100 plate appearances, Jacob Amaya (68) has the most PA in a White Sox uniform this season without homering. Teel also had a game-high four hits.
*Sox hitters scored 49 runs and homered nine times in six games over this road trip. That's wild. They went 7-for-15 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday, a slight decline from going 7-for-13 w/RISP in the second game of the Pirates series. The Rays went for 4-for-16 and stranded 10 runners, which is how scoring nine runs and reached base 21 times can feel disappointing.
*This was the Sox first time overcoming multiple multi-run deficits on the road since 2016, multiple rebuilds ago, and their first time winning both series of a road trip of six games or more since 2022.
*Bradley was optioned to Triple-A after the game. He was pulled after recording five outs on 55 pitches.
*Reminding that the Sox won five of their last six games of 2024, they now are at a win total they didn't reach until Sept. 24 of last year.
