PHOENIX — Chicago White Sox catcher Kyle Teel feels like he’s “getting better every day” as he continues recovering from a right hamstring strain.
“We’re not sure yet when I’m going out (on a rehab assignment),” Teel said Sunday at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif. “It’s just trying to get better every day with it.
“I’m just not ready to go out yet with how my hamstring is. Although we’re improving and it’s getting better, it’s just taking it day by day with everything.”
Teel continued rehabbing while traveling with the club for the series against the Athletics. And he’ll keep working in Phoenix when the Sox begin a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday at Chase Field.
Here are three Sox takeaways halfway through their six-game trip.
1. Running remains the toughest task for Kyle Teel during rehab.
Teel misses playing “a ton.”
Teel last appeared in a game on March 10, when he suffered the injury on his way to second base for a double while playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.
“It’s tough not playing every day,” Teel said. “It’s what I love to do. I feel like it’s definitely difficult.”
Teel said he can swing and catch, “but running is tough.”
“It’s just strengthening the muscle, it’s still fairly weak,” Teel said. “I feel like I’m not curling as much weight with it. I’m not running 100% yet. Just making sure I’m 100% so I can come back and not get hurt again.
“I’m just trying to be diligent every day with getting my work in. I feel like I’m doing a great job with that. And it’s just working with the trainers and trying to get better.”
Teel knows it’s important to be patient.
“Patience is important because it can get frustrating,” he said. “Just understanding that it’s a long season. So it’s just being patient, but still having that in the back of my mind that, like, I want to get out and get back to playing, trying to really strive towards that.”
2. Colson Montgomery stuck to his plan while contributing to the weekend power display.
Colson Montgomery set the offensive tone for the series with an RBI double in the first inning of Friday’s 9-2 victory against the Athletics. Montgomery had two hits and two RBIs on Friday.
The shortstop hit solo home runs on Saturday and Sunday.
“I feel good,” Montgomery said after Sunday’s 7-4 victory. “Just sticking with my plan, staying committed to my plan. Scouting the pitchers, all those things. When you combine all those things and you go out there and trust your plan and you execute it, you find things like today.
“Especially, not just with me, but with everybody else. I feel like everyone else is going up there with a really good plan and staying committed to it and putting good swings on the ball.”
Sox batters hit eight home runs while winning two of three in the series against the Athletics. Munetaka Murakami led the power surge, hitting a home run in each of the three games — including a grand slam on Friday. He has eight home runs, the most by a Japanese-born player over the first 22 career games in major-league history. Shohei Ohtani had five in his first 22 games as a hitter.
“(The season is) so long, the ups and downs of figuring out how they’re pitching you and things like that, of how to adjust,” Montgomery said of Murakami rebounding following a 1-for-23 stretch from April 5-12. “He kept with it, he stayed with it, he worked his butt off in the cage.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he’s swinging it well.”
3. Davis Martin has been among baseball’s most consistent pitchers.
Sox starter Davis Martin ranks ninth in the American League with a 2.16 ERA after allowing one run over seven innings on Friday.
The right-hander surrendered three hits, struck out four and walked two while improving to 3-1 this season.
“Kind of like what (pitching coach Zach) Bove told me after last week, that could be the standard for us,” Martin said on Friday, referring to an April 10 start against the Royals when he allowed two runs in seven innings. “(Bove is) like, ‘That could be a week in, week out thing.’
“I think when we’re attacking the strike zone, we’re getting ahead and we’re able to use all six pitches, it puts us in a good spot to get a lot of weak contact early and let the defense play and try to get those shutdown innings to get our offense back in there and keep doing what they’re doing.”
Martin is in line to start Thursday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks.
