Following up: Tristan Peters earns rookie honors for for August

Tristan Peters probably won't win American League Rookie of the Year, but he was named Rookie of the Month for August, during which he hit .320/.414/.640 over 27 games, and tied a rookie record with homers in five consecutive games.

The larger honors seem destined to go to Detroit's Kevin McGonigle, whose slightly lesser overall production can be forgiven by the huge advantage in plate appearances. McGonigle plays just about every game, while Peters has been utilized on the long side of a platoon.

That said, McGonigle is currently weathering his roughest patch of the season, as an 0-for-6 night against Minnesota on Wednesday makes him 3-for-32 over his last eight games. The 22-year-old Tiger is well beyond his previous season highs in playing time, while the relatively grizzled 26-year-old Peters has multiple seasons where he's logged far more playing time, so if McGonigle is wearing down rather than merely dealing with a routine slump, Peters is in a position to keep him honest and keep voters from making it a coronation.

Breaking news: Two good starts

After 10 consecutive games where a White Sox starter failed to pitch beyond the fifth inning, Sean Burke and Davis Martin have thrown 5⅔ innings the past two nights. That doesn't sound like much until you realize that spares the White Sox at least one high-leverage relief appearance per game.

To revisit a concept we discussed on Wednesday's Sox Machine Live, both pitchers found the "middle class" versions of themselves, where they didn't have to look like Cy Young finalists in order to have in-start staying power. Burke overcame raggedy control early with a couple of ultra-efficient innings to put him back on track for a near-quality start, while Martin had to navigate his way around traffic, but did it by reclaiming the entire strike zone and gaining count leverage with a more effective four-seam fastball, then getting out before louder contact created an avalanche.

Martin told reporters after the game that his four-seamer had too much horizontal movement before his stint on the IL, which brought it back to barrels he was trying to get over.

"That cutt-ier ball that really hasn’t been above barrels, which kind of eliminates the upper half of the strike zone for me," Martin said. "To be able to have that upper part of the strike zone available is one more thing they have to worry about."

It's been a while since Martin was able to detail positive behavior of pitches after a game, which is another sign of normalcy. The postgame conversation for his last three starts centered on potential pitch-tipping, a rain delay that limited him to one bad inning, and a blister that made his fastball control indistinguishable from head-hunting.

What about three catchers?

Kyle Teel is six games into his rehab stint for his high ankle sprain, and the last two nights have allowed him to check the "consecutive full games" box, with one at catcher and one at DH.

Will Venable said before Wednesday's game that there's "nothing imminent, no date" on Teel's return, but the eighth inning of Wednesday's game, where Drew Romo wasn't able to score from second on what could've been a go-ahead single by Munetaka Murakami, showed one reason why the White Sox might want to use their extra roster spot on a third catcher.

Venable said after the game that they considered pinch-running for Romo, and the way the inning unfolded invited second-guessing.

"We talked about it and trust in Drew there. At the same time, he's catching a shutout there, with [Sean Newcomb] going back out, which was the plan. Definitely a thought and obviously if you go back, probably would have chose to do it. But it was a decision that we talked about and thought that we were in a good spot and trusted Drew to make the right move."

Shutout or not, an extra catcher probably makes pinch-running for Romo a more natural call, because the ability to pursue what could be a marginal upgrade without inviting a defensive emergency is the whole reason for rolling three deep behind the plate.

Update: We have a Teel update for today.