WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The variety of Sam Antonacci’s offensive skills was on display during his major-league debut on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Chicago White Sox infielder/outfielder took what the pitcher gave him in his first at-bat, looping a low changeup to right field for a single.
He fouled off four pitches during an eight-pitch at-bat his next time at the plate, eventually grounding out to second.
Later, in the final of his four plate appearances, Antonacci showed patience, drawing a ninth-inning walk on four pitches.
Sox director of hitting Ryan Fuller has seen some of the versatility shine as Antonacci made his journey to the major leagues.
“I’m so proud of Sam, where he was two years ago to where he is now,” Fuller said Thursday at Rate Field. “Always had the ability to have a really good at-bat, to be able to put the ball forward. But you see him being more physical now, too, where we have confidence that you are a big-league player, you are going to be able to hit the ball hard on a line when they make mistakes.
“You are going to see unbelievable gritty at-bats, be able to get to two strikes, foul pitches off, get a mistake and what he did (Wednesday) night, it was indicative of his skill set of taking walks when they are presented and when they throw it in the zone, be able to hit it hard on the line.”
Antonacci is a new arrival to a lineup searching for consistency during the early portion of the season. The Sox entered Friday as the only club in the majors with a team batting average under .200 (.195).
Fuller provided a breakdown on several Sox hitters ahead of the team’s trip to West Sacramento, where they began a three-game series on Friday against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.
Key offensive addition Munetaka Murakami entered Friday slashing .167/.346/.417 with a team-leading five home runs in 19 games.
“Mune, incredible worker,” Fuller said. “Every day, really intentional with how he spends his time.”
The two-time Nippon Professional Baseball Central League MVP continues to make adjustments.
“Mune, obviously, was a lot of the fastball talk (before signing),” Fuller said. “To his credit, he addressed it in spring training, right when we got to Chicago. The things we have here, in terms of being able to prep.
“Now it’s left-on-left matchups where they are not going to give you a fastball. Are you able to tunnel the breaking ball in the spot you want? So it’s not just one pitch we are monitoring. We are monitoring all of them. To his credit, he’s going to be able to make adjustments and understand how to get to them.”
Shortstop Colson Montgomery is going through his first full season in the majors after making his debut last July. He came into Friday with a .172/.274/.359 slash line with three home runs and nine RBIs.
“Really proud of Colson — it could be a situation where it speeds up and you kind of question things, but he’s doing a really good job of understanding that it’s April 16 and there’s a lot more baseball to be played,” Fuller said.
“Like all these guys, they’re struggling right now. We’re going to get it right, we’re going to make adjustments. He’s confident in the work we’re going to put in and it’s going to start to show up.”
Luisangel Acuña is among those adapting to a new situation after being acquired as part of an offseason trade that sent Luis Robert Jr. to the New York Mets. Acuña is hitting .170 with two RBIs in 16 games while getting a heavy dose of center field for the first time in his big-league career.
“New organization, he wants to impress, he knows he was part of a trade and there’s a lot that goes in the personal side, too,” Fuller said. “Usually for all these guys, the more we try, the harder it gets, right?
“He’s been unlucky, he’s hitting the ball hard, it’s on the ground where they’re able to make those plays. It’s ‘how do I get back to hitting more line drives, getting the ball off the ground a little more?'”
Fuller added, “He is grinding every day to make sure he gets it right and it’s going to show up.”
Across the board, several Sox players are slumping. The team ranks last in the American League in many offensive categories, including hits (118), runs (60) and on-base percentage (.286).
“These guys are human,” Fuller said. “And you look at the current roster right now, 13 guys as a part of the offense, 10 have two or less years of service time. They’re inexperienced. They’re going through struggle, a lot of these guys, for the first time at the big-league level. That is totally normal. All these guys are going to go through it. What we’ve talked about is, you look at any team over the course of 162, there’s going to be 20 or 30 games that everyone kind of goes cold at once and it’s a tough spell.
“We can reframe this as we’re getting ours out of the way in April, that’s going to set us up for really good lessons when we get into June, July, August, when it’s hotter, those dog days of summer. Reminding these guys that this could be a benefit to us down the road. It might not feel like it right now, but trusting the values, the principles, that we have in place.”
