One thing seemed certain Friday as the White Sox opened a homestand against the American League Central rival Guardians at Rate Field, fresh — make that bone-weary — off a bonkers 12-11, 13-inning loss in Boston in the second-longest major-league game of the pitch-clock era (since 2023):
They needed starting pitcher Noah Schultz to hunker down and give them some innings.
Instead, Schultz got one out in a shaky first before his manager, Will Venable, committed one of the gaffes of the season by making a mound visit two batters after pitching coach Zach Bove went out there and, by rule, forcing Schultz’s removal from a game the Sox evenutally lost 8-2.
It was reminiscent of an epic gaffe by former Sox manager Terry Bevington in 1997 — also against Cleveland — when he trudged to the mound and motioned to the bullpen for a right-hander, despite the minor detail that nobody was warming up.
Venable seems pretty sharp on the whole, however, which made this a real surprise.
‘‘Just an inexcusable mistake by me where we had an appeal play that we wanted to execute and, in the urgency of trying to make that happen, just totally lost that we had visited,’’ he said. ‘‘Just messed it up.’’
Asked if someone on the bench had the task of rescuing him in such a scenario, Venable said: ‘‘It was just on me. That’s on me. Just a mistake by me and one of those you’ve got to learn from and can’t happen.’’
Will Venable went out to talk with Noah Schultz, but the White Sox had already used one mound visit in the inning, so Schultz had to be removed from the game.
Schultz threw 23 pitches and only recorded 1 out. pic.twitter.com/e7rnGMD3e4
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) August 8, 2026
As the Sox took the field with four dozen games to go and a three-game lead over the Guardians and Twins in the AL Central, the last thing they needed was more negative momentum. Getting swept in three games by the Red Sox was plenty on that front — to say nothing of some of the developments therein, among them Davis Martin seemingly tipping pitches and rookie Sam Antonacci chicken-winging Willson Contreras on the basepaths.
Instead, they watched disaster unfold after David Sandlin — who was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte earlier in the day — had to get loose on the fly and take the mound for only the fifth time as a big-leaguer. Sandlin, the Sox’ No. 7-ranked prospect by MLB.com, came through with a quality performance for a while before getting rocked by a grand slam by Angel Martinez in the Guardians’ five-run fifth. Sandlin left with the Sox trailing 8-1 in the sixth.
All of which has made it a tad harder to believe in the fortunes of a team that has played sub-.500 baseball since the All-Star break. Then again, welcome to the AL Central, where such stretches are a way of life. Only the Tigers were above .500 since the break, but they just waved the white towel by dealing mega-ace Tarik Skubal.
With four dozen games to go, a motto was suggested to some of the Sox: ‘‘48 Ours.’’
As in, let’s not screw up the rest of the season and we can raise a division banner.
‘‘Definitely,’’ Antonacci said. ‘‘There’s obviously still a lot of time left and a lot of things can happen, but we have the team to keep grinding and keep winning and put ourselves in a good spot. I think we’ve got a really good shot. It’s just: How bad do we want it?’’
Martin hasn’t been at his best since before the break, but he’s not backing down.
‘‘I like where my stuff is at,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not a game for weak-minded people.’’
His eyes popped at the mention of ‘‘four dozen.’’
‘‘When you put it like that, it really doesn’t sound like [many left],’’ he said. ‘‘I think we’ve put ourselves in a great situation. We’ve weathered a lot of storms. We’re a good team.’’
Before the game, general manager Chris Getz noted much of this season came with a certain ‘‘baseball purity and innocence’’ for the Sox, who weren’t expected to amount to this much.
‘‘All of a sudden, you start paying attention to the standings or what another team is
doing, it’s a bit of a distraction,’’ Getz said.
The Sox might have been a distracted team in Boston. Their manager and his staff might not have been all that locked in Friday. That’s not going to get it done the rest of the way.
According to Venable, he was considering going to Sandlin after another couple of hitters anyway.
Schultz, however, said: ‘‘I was under the impression it would be a normal start.’’
There was nothing normal about this one.