ATLANTA — White Sox rookie shortstop Colson Montgomery was bound to come back down to earth at some point.
He roared out of the gate after his debut July 4 to an .827 OPS in his first month in the majors, but he’s put up a more pedestrian .682 OPS in August.
With five home runs in each of his first two calendar months, the power is still there — and so is the confidence Montgomery developed while rebounding from his minor-league doldrums at the start of the season. Those prompted a trip to the Sox’ hitting complex in Arizona to rediscover his form.
‘‘You definitely go back and look when you were rolling, when you were feeling good,’’ said Montgomery, who went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in his return to the lineup Wednesday after missing a game because of discomfort in his side. ‘‘And you are not trying something new; you are trying to re-create. I still feel pretty good. I think it’s ‘Angry August’ for a reason.’’
The dog days of summer have seen Montgomery, 23, strike out in nearly 40% of his at-bats this month, but he still has shined overall since his debut. He has 1.1 WAR, per FanGraphs, with his .760 overall OPS.
As far as slumps go, that’s barely a hiccup compared with the .149/.223/.255 roadblock he slammed into at the start of the season in Triple-A Charlotte, forcing the Sox to yank him from the field in favor of one-on-one training with hitting director Ryan Fuller.
‘‘I’ve definitely experienced a lot of things from the highs and the lows,’’ Montgomery said. ‘‘Sometimes you have to learn the hard way with losses and things like that, not good performances. It’s all just going to help in the future.’’
While the Sox banked on Montgomery finding his bat, they weren’t expecting the defense he has flashed to start his career.
‘‘It’s been a lot better than I thought,’’ manager Will Venable said. ‘‘It’s just been outstanding. He converts outs that he makes look easy, that are not easy plays. We’ve asked him to play third base and shortstop and mix them up, and he just hasn’t skipped a beat.’’
That has been rewarding for the 6-3 Montgomery, whom many scouts predicted wouldn’t last at short, the most demanding position on the field.
‘‘You get questioned a lot when you are in the minor leagues because of your frame and a lot of things, but all you can do is show what you can do,’’ he said. ‘‘Ever since I got up here, it’s just playing my butt off and doing whatever I can for the guys and the pitchers.’’
Now the tit-for-tat of scouting adjustments begins for Montgomery.
‘‘I think he’s well-positioned to be here,’’ Venable said. ‘‘Having cooled off, to figure out what he needs to do to get back to performing at the level that he knows he can. I talked to him a little bit about the things he’s working on, and he’s excited about it.’’
Montgomery said opposing pitchers are coming at him backward.
‘‘[They’re] starting off-speed and trying to steal strikes with fastballs late in the count,’’ he said. ‘‘Try to change my eye level with a lot of things.
‘‘The biggest thing for me is just trying to stay tall, stay to center field, left-center, think line drive through the shortstop.’’
Venable said he marveled at the way Montgomery ‘‘started clicking fastballs in the zone right away’’ after his call-up.
‘‘They pretty quickly got off of that,’’ Venable said of pitchers, who since have gotten Montgomery to chase on breaking balls.
‘‘We know that when you come up in this league, you’ve got a couple of days to sneak-attack some people,’’ Venable said. ‘‘They start figuring you out, and then it’s your turn to make an adjustment.
‘‘And it’s not going to stop for the next 12 years — or however long he plays.’’