{"id":620606,"date":"2026-03-12T19:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/620606\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T19:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:04:14","slug":"chicago-white-sox-inf-back-after-special-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/620606\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox INF back after ‘special’ WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

GLENDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Chicago White Sox infielder Curtis Mead collected the first hit of the World Baseball Classic<\/a> with a first-inning single on March 5 for Team Australia against Chinese Taipei at the Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n

Mead hit a three-run home run<\/a> the next day against Czechia. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was special,\u201d Mead said Wednesday at Camelback Ranch. \u201cThe cool thing about those games is if the team wins, that\u2019s all that really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third baseman\/first baseman returned to Sox camp on Wednesday after Australia just missed advancing in the WBC. Australia went 2-2 in pool play, but came up short in the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super special to have a pretty successful tournament by our standards,\u201d Mead said. \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to come up a little bit short, but it was definitely a memorable experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead went 5-for-14, a .357 average, with one home run and three RBIs in four games for Australia. Sox manager Will Venable said it was an extension of what the team saw before Mead left for Tokyo.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been great,\u201d Venable said on Wednesday. \u201cWatching Curtis last year, you watch him in BP (batting practice) and you know the power that\u2019s in there. He just didn\u2019t really get to it in games last year. Kind of coming into this year, hoping that you see some of the pop come out. And it has.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came out here before he left, it came out in the WBC. He\u2019s a great guy in the clubhouse, a great guy for us on the field. Really excited to see him put some charges into balls.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Mead\u2019s first time participating<\/a> in the event. He couldn\u2019t pick just one favorite moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably the two that come to mind are Game 1 against Taipei, beating them,\u201d Mead said. \u201cI think going into that game, no one really gave us a whole lot of credit. It kind of set us up for the tournament, which was nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the second was probably playing Japan. That was just kind of cool to be running with them through six or seven innings. It was awesome. The crowd was just electric.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the three-run home run, which came in the third inning and gave Australia a 3-1 lead, Mead said, \u201cThe biggest part of it was that it felt like a big moment in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe had just beaten Taiwan and kind of felt like we should beat Czech pretty comfortably. For them to score first and me to come up in a big spot where one swing can kind of take the momentum back, it was super special to be able to share that with the fans and with my teammates. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead described the atmosphere at the Tokyo Dome as \u201celectric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd there and the noise was really probably as loud as I\u2019ve experienced,\u201d he said. \u201cThe facilities there are awesome. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Australia'sAustralia’s Curtis Mead celebrates with coach Andrew Graham after hitting a three-run home run in the third inning against and Czechia at Tokyo Dome on March 6, 2026, in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

He also appreciated the fan support.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had about two sections full,\u201d Mead said. \u201cIt was interesting. The Japan game, every time we would get out of a jam or have a couple of hits, the two sections above our dugout were going crazy and the rest of the stadium was pretty quiet. And when they took the lead, in the sixth or seventh, everyone was standing but those two sections. It was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead found the WBC beneficial in multiple ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely gave me some confidence, not only in my performance but in my body,\u201d Mead said. \u201cI\u2019ve already played five nine-inning games. I feel good about how I\u2019m feeling and excited about the rest of camp and beginning the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mead was 4-for-13, a .308 average, with one home run and three RBIs in four Cactus League games with the Sox before joining Team Australia.<\/p>\n

Mead hit .240 with eight doubles and 11 RBIs in 41 games with the Sox in 2025 after being acquired in a trade<\/a> last July from Tampa Bay. He is in the mix for a roster spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mead has the mindset of \u201cjust kind of put my best forward and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just kind of getting back to going about my business and taking care of the day-to-day stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLENDALE, Ariz. \u2014 Chicago White Sox infielder Curtis Mead collected the first hit of the World Baseball Classic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,49,6524,4,67937,65255,80079,80078],"class_list":["post-620606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-curtis-mead","tag-mlb","tag-team-australia","tag-white-sox-roster","tag-who-is-curtis-mead","tag-world-baseball-clasic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116217766839110646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}