Davis Martin feels a sort of pride about weathering a four-run first to deliver six innings in an eventual victory on Wednesday night that only starting pitchers can really understand, and truly believes his mechanics are returning to their first half norms.
Beginning with 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball against these same Yankees, Sean Burke is on a seven-outing streak that's established him as the best thing the White Sox have going in their rotation: 44 2/3 IP, 32 H, 8 ER, 7 BB, 57 K, 4 HR, 1.61 ERA.
He's sort of put his changeup on the shelf, and his arm angle is slightly raised, but both of these are more representative of how in-sync his delivery and the primary pieces of his arsenal are, rather than an intentional shift.
"I'm not gonna do anybody a favor by throwing it when I feel like I don't need to," Burke said of his changeup, before moving on to his delivery. "It's just matching my arm path to my shoulders and where it's at. I don't think there's anything intentional to try to raise [my release point] or anything. We're just trying to match the plane of my shoulders and my hips."
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Jordan Hicks extended his career-high scoreless appearances streak to 14 in particularly nervy fashion in the 12th inning on Wednesday night, pitching over a single, a walk and the extra runner to set up Edgar Quero's walk-off single in the bottom half of the inning.
We've detailed around these parts the arm angle shift that has enabled Hicks' turnaround, but that story omitted a quote he gave about the team.
"I'm excited," Hicks said. "We're in a good spot. It's the right group to make a push into the playoffs, win the division. Just got to keep showing up, playing good ball. We're going to get soaked every once in a while. It's about how you respond to it, and hopefully we respond well."
Not to get overly caught up on one game for a team that's only five games over .500, but in line with Hicks line about responding, there is definitely a sense of "this is what we do" from White Sox players about their wild comeback victory Wednesday, rather than an exhale about snapping a cold stretch.
"There's nothing really to turn around here," said Sam Antonacci. "We've had such a successful season so far, just continue to keep stacking on wins. The biggest success of yesterday is that we ended up winning a game like that; a playoff-type game."
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Chase Meidroth will be the tip of the spear for the White Sox against lefty starter Ryan Weathers. Success or failure, it won't be an issue of not being hyped up enough for Meidroth.
"Chase is a dog," said hitting director Ryan Fuller. "He's coming here for war every single day. He wants to be in the cage early. He wants to push the guys. He knows that we're playing the Yankees, it's going to be a fight. We've got to do something today. More than anything else, stature or the way he looks, he's six-foot-six, 250 [pounds] in his head. He is definitely a dog that we love having on our side."
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Starting pitching matchups for this weekend in Tampa (or St. Petersburg) are set:
Friday: Erick Fedde vs. Nick Martinez
Saturday: Noah Schultz vs. Drew Rasmussen
Sunday: Anthony Kay vs. Griffin Jax
First pitch: White Sox vs. Yankees
TV: CHSN
Radio: ESPN 1000 AM
Lineups:
| Yankees | White Sox | |
|---|---|---|
| Trent Grishamn, CF | 1 | Chase Meidroth, 2B |
| Ben Rice, 1B | 2 | Munetaka Murakami, 1B |
| Jasson Domínguez, RF | 3 | Miguel Vargas, DH |
| Paul Goldschmidt, DH | 4 | Randal Grichuk, LF |
| Spencer Jones, LF | 5 | Colson Montgomery, 3B |
| Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B | 6 | Everson Pereira, CF |
| Anthony Volpe, SS | 7 | Braden Montgomery, RF |
| Ryan McMahon, 3B | 8 | Luisangel Acuña, SS |
| Austin Wells, C | 9 | Edgar Quero, C |
| Ryan Weathers | SP | Sean Burke |
