CLEVELAND – White Sox general manager Chris Getz flew in expressly for this series and said there were only “minimal” reasons his club couldn’t arrest their slide
With the team having lost 10 of 14, shaving their division lead over the Cleveland Guardians to a half game, manager Will Venable and his staff pasted photos of Sox season highlights to the wall of the tunnel between the locker room and the dugout.
If the visual aids weren’t enough, the Sox coaching staff reiterated in pregame meetings the importance of the relaxed, fun vibe that had powered this young team to their surprising opportunity to reach the playoffs. But how does a roster full of players who had never been in a game as meaningful as Monday’s 7-3 win to clinch the season series–and secure a tiebreaker–against the Guardians, force themselves to relax?
“We’re saying dumb stuff,” said Tristan Peters. “We’ve got guys like [Mike] Vasil who really get us fired up, and really focused on having fun with each other.”
After weeks of frustration, wayward pitching, repeated failures with the bases loaded, and five scoreless innings against fireballing Guardians’ right-hander Gavin Williams, Peters sparked the Sox with the sort of dumb stuff that no one could love quite like a gritty baseball team.
Some players don’t choke up with two strikes anymore, but Peters does. And after he fell behind 1-2 to Williams, nearing 100 pitches in his final inning of work in the sixth, Peters tried to see the ball deep and battle. He fouled off a high fastball, then a low curve, a sweeper, and then another heater. He took ball 2, and then resumed fighting pitches off; 12 fouls in all.
“I counted at one point, and I just stopped counting because it was getting up there,” Williams told reporters.
“It felt like I was up there for like an hour,” Peters said. “I swung at one that might have hit me.”
Williams’ 18th pitch of the longest plate appearance of the MLB season was a backdoor curve that missed for a walk. It ended Williams’ night at 113 pitches, and as Peters jogged over to his dugout during the pitching change, his teammates were vibrating with glee.
“I loved it,” said Sam Antonacci. “I think I was more happy than he was.”
A play later, Peters experienced what he described as “the greatest feeling in the world,” the sensation of Nathaniel Lowe’s throw on a potential Colson Montgomery double play ball caroming off his helmet and into the outfield for a run-scoring error. Venable praised Peters for the fundamental work of running into the defender’s throwing lane, but it looked like and was embraced as the dumb stuff this young Sox team thrives on.
Chase Meidroth followed with an RBI single. Two batters later, pinch-hitter Randal Grichuk loaded the bases with a knock of his own, and in the wake the Sox going 1-for-13 with the bases loaded over their last 14 games, Kyle Teel exorcised those demons with a two-run double. By the time Miguel Vargas launched a two-run blast to cap a back-breaking six-run frame, the Sox were doing their silly dugout celebrations again.
“We have a team here that kind of thrives in that environment,” said Sean Burke, making a claim that sounded much more credible after five innings without an earned run allowed than before. His key for bouncing back from the worst outing of his career fit the theme of the night.
“Just trying to throw the ball as hard as I can right down the middle,” Burke said. “I found that helps me just get back and be simple.”
There were dumb mistakes too, as all three Guardians runs were unearned. Venable was not trying to celebrate the Sox claiming the tiebreaker since they can still potentially leave town in second place. But his team was happy about something that went beyond the standings.
“That, was more like ourselves,” said Peters.