There’s a look, a sound and a feel to Grant Taylor’s 98-mph fastball when he’s on top of his game.
“Very crispy” is how White Sox pitching coach Zach Bove described the stuff Taylor showed on Saturday, when the second-year right-hander needed just 19 pitches to strike out four Royals over two flawless innings.
“It was a pretty electric outing,” Bove said. “I actually asked him out there if that was his best outing of the year and he said, ‘Yeah, definitely up there.’”
It ended a brief series of June stumbles for Taylor, who had given up at least a run in each of his previous five outings.
“Couldn’t ask for more — dominant, attacking the zone,” Bove said. “It was awesome, and exactly what we needed, too.”
A tweak to the positioning of his back foot in the delivery made a quick difference for Taylor, who has stoked All-Star talk while running a 3-1 record with a 2.83 ERA over 31 games, striking out 60 batters in 40 ⅓ innings.
“I feel like I’m just doing my best to get better every day,” Taylor said. “Trying to learn more about how to get big-league hitters out, and then get better and better at it every day.”
Walk in the park
First baseman Jacob Gonzalez’s game-winning RBI single to clinch Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Royals marked the first walk-off hit of the rookie’s high school, collegiate or professional career, he said — but it wasn’t his first walk-off.
“I had a walk-off walk once,” Gonzalez said. “Then there was a walk-off fielder’s choice and a walk-off sacrifice fly.”
How do the late-game heroics compare? “This was better.”
Jacob Gonzalez calls game! 😤 pic.twitter.com/7NzLMLRI9v
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) June 27, 2026
Gonzalez joined Tristan Peters, Sam Antonacci and Braden Montgomery to make it four Sox rookies who have racked up walk-off RBIs this season. It’s the first time since 1962 that four Sox have notched game-ending RBIs in a year
“This is such a fun team to play with,” said Gonzalez, a natural shortstop who has hit .230/.319/.344 with two homers and 11 RBI since his May 31 debut. Aside from some defensive growing pains at a new position, he’s taken the edge off Munetaka Murakami’s absence with a hamstring injury. Gonzalez made a nice catch on a liner down the right-field line in the first inning of Sunday’s game.
“I’m getting more comfortable and learning every day,” he said.
Fauske on the farm
Nazareth Academy alumnus and Willowbrook native Jaden Fauske has had a strong month at the plate at Single-A Kannapolis, slashing .273/.340/.432 with a double, three homers and nine RBI.
“I’ve had a pretty solid last two to three weeks or so,” Fauske said during a virtual news conference Friday. A year after getting drafted by the team he grew up rooting for, the 19-year-old outfielder is still getting used to the pro grind.
“In high school, you’d play at most maybe three times a week, and now you’re looking at playing five to six times a week,” he said, quick to point out that he’s living the dream.
“Just the idea of potentially playing for my hometown team is pretty cool to think about… It’s something I look forward to, understanding that there’s a long way to go and there’s a lot of work to be done.”
