Pregame notes: Sam Antonacci’s debut or Jesse Scholtens’ revenge?

Three days ago, the Rays put starter Joe Boyle on the injured list right elbow strain and recalled old friend Jesse Scholtens, who will start Wednesday night's game. Alongside that initial source of rotation schedule shuffling, right-hander Drew Rasmussen came off the paternity and started Tampa Bay's game on Sunday, pushing left-hander Shane McClanahan to Tuesday's series opener in Chicago.

Had the Rays stayed on schedule, the White Sox indeed would have called up Sam Antonacci to make his major league debut on Tuesday alongside Noah Schultz, and he would have been in the lineup against a right-handed starter. Instead, such is the team's stated commitment to playing matchups that the lefty swinging Antonacci played an 11am Camp Day Triple-A game in Jacksonville while children shrieked all around him, and didn't get the news that he was headed to the majors until later that night.

Or so the story goes, since Antonacci obviously got wind of reports from this weekend that he was headed up to the majors on Tuesday.

"Obviously, my phone blew up a little bit and had to turn it off because I had no idea what was going on," Antonacci said. "It’s part of life. Whoever posted it, it’s their first time living too, and all you guys’ first time living too. People make mistakes. I’m going to make mistakes. It’s part of it."

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The plurality, if not the outright majority, of Antonacci's playing time will come in left field, per Will Venable. He's getting a start at second base on Wednesday to line up with what the White Sox manager termed as a planned off day for Chase Meidroth, and there's a chance Antonacci will play some third base, but he's supposed to get a heads up when he does. It sounds like he'll be a lineup regular, but probably sit against a lot of left-handed pitching for a while.

He doesn't seem as thrown for a loop by his outfield commitments as he might have during earlier portions of the season.

"[Knights manager] Chad [Pinder] did a really good job, he’s been in my shoes, so he did a really good job of just helping me understand what I need to do out there and I don’t need to do anything too crazy out there, just be the player that I’m supposed to be," Antonacci said. "It’s been a few changes that I didn’t expect that have nothing to do with the athletic ability. It’s a very far run out there. It adds up over nine innings. Can get pretty boring out there. And you get heckled a lot, I didn’t realize that. You don’t really get heckled in the infield."

Antonacci definitely would seem to be filling an outfield role on the roster, since fellow left-handed outfielder Dustin Harris was designated for assignment to make room for him, despite acquitting himself well in his short time.

"He was really just kind of the odd guy out, really not because of anything he did," Venable said of Harris, who went 3-for-12 with four walks. "He's a really useful guy. I think there's a chance that he gets claimed, and if he doesn't, we were transparent with him, that we still really like him. He did a great job, and he goes to Charlotte with us, if that is the case, that we'll go grab him if there's that opportunity."

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Antonacci was asked how he'd describe his game to fans who were unfamiliar with him, and wound up turning it into a request.

"Just not taking a play off on everything, no matter what the score dictates," Antonacci said. "If I’m ever seen as taking a play off, I would like the fans to let me know or have someone else let me know. I’ll get that fixed, but I don’t see that happening."

First pitch: White Sox vs. Rays

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