The Chicago White Sox moved back over .500 Monday with their 3-1 win over the Minnesota Twins, after an unimpressive 2-4 road trip to Seattle and San Francisco.
A month ago, the .500 mark was seemingly a reachable goal, and anything over that was found money. But expectations are changing, as manager Will Venable suggested early Monday when asked about the road trip.
“I thought it was a road trip where we probably didn’t play our best baseball,” he said. “There were some situations we didn’t execute, some sloppy stuff. But you go into that last day with a chance to get .500 on the road trip, and obviously didn’t make it happen. There’s some good stuff in there, but yeah, just not our best trip.”
Column: Rikuu Nishida loses a shoe — but wins over fans — in his Chicago White Sox debut
The Sox are no longer looking for small improvements and playing hard. Winning is the main objective, and everything else is secondary. One third of the way into the season, baby steps are no longer an option.
On Monday they rebounded thanks to strong starting pitching by Anthony Kay, solid defense from shortstop Colson Montgomery and right fielder Rikuu Nishida, making his major-league debut. Beginning a 10-game stretch against the division, the Sox are now 6-2 against the American League Central, and 4-0 at home. They face the Twins three more times this week before a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers, followed by a three-game series at Minnesota.
The Sox offense was shut down after the first two innings, but early home runs by Munetaka Murakami and Drew Romo proved to be enough. Grant Taylor, who served up the go-ahead grand slam to Rafael Devers in Sunday’s loss in San Francisco, came back to pitch a scoreless seventh, and closer Seranthony Domínguez posted a scoreless ninth for his 11th save, the most by a Sox reliever since 2022, when Liam Hendriks saved 37 games.
The Sox believe they’re a much better team than their record, so being around .500 isn’t considered anything special, despite the long rebuild.
“Personally I haven’t been on a team .500 or above for a few years,” Romo said afterward. “I haven’t been on a team this good in a long time. Seeing how talented we are, seeing us perform day in, day out and winning ballgames, that fires me up. I’m pumped every night. I feel super confident in our team and our guys that we can beat anybody.”
The series win against the Cubs, including the 9-8, 10-inning win in the finale, gave the Sox confidence they could compete in the AL Central. But Cleveland got on a hot streak, and the Sox looked mediocre in Seattle and San Francisco.
Murakami went 5-for-21 on the road trip with no home runs and had been homerless in seven games before his first-inning solo shot Monday off Twins starter Zebby Matthews. He declined to speak to either the American or Japanese media afterward, sending a message through the Sox that “it’s Rikuu’s day.”
And it was a big day for Nishida, who threw out a runner at the plate in the second inning, getting the crowd cranked up with a big defensive play.
“We were talking on the bench before, what kind of arm he has,” Venable said. “In spring training, sometimes you see it. He came over (from minor-league camp) and played a lot of games for us, but I had (his arm) as (being) kind of average, and that was obviously a really good throw. So we’re all still learning about Rikuu.”
Jarred Kelenic was designated for assignment to make room for Nishida, who looks like he’ll be here for a while.
“I was too concentrated on the game, so I don’t have any comments for you,” Nishida said, before an entertaining news conference in both English and Japanese.
