{"id":653392,"date":"2026-03-30T23:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653392\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:06:17","slug":"colson-montgomerys-approach-pays-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653392\/","title":{"rendered":"Colson Montgomery’s approach pays off"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 The Chicago White Sox needed a jolt after being outscored 20-3 in their first two games of the season<\/a> against the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n

Shortstop Colson Montgomery provided an instant pick-me-up on Sunday at American Family Field in Milwaukee, blasting a grand slam in the first inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with the guys in front of me,\u201d Montgomery said after the game. \u201cWe had a good game plan with (Brewers starter Brandon Sproat). We were trying to keep him in the zone. If we kept him in the zone, we were able to do some damage with him.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The previous batters) weren\u2019t really trying to do too much. (Sproat) really wasn\u2019t throwing anything over the plate for anybody. We were taking our walks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase Meidroth and Munetaka Murakami walked. Miguel Vargas reached on a bloop single to load the bases for Montgomery.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be passive, so (Vargas) comes up and he takes a big hack, too. We are still on the attack,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cWe are still trying to do damage. I had the same thing in my head. Went up there to do damage. Went up to get the ball in the air, do whatever I could, he threw me a good pitch to do it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ColsonColson Montgomery of the Chicago White Sox singles in a run in the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on March 29, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wis. (John Fisher\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Montgomery connected on a first-pitch cutter for his second career grand slam. It was the first home run of the season for the 24-year-old, who hit 21 home runs in 71 games as a rookie in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Montgomery became the fastest player in Sox history to record his first two career grand slams, doing so in 74 games. He surpassed Alexei Ram\u00edrez, who recorded his first two career slams over his first 97 games in 2008.<\/p>\n

Montgomery drove in another run in the second inning on Sunday with a single. Montgomery tied a career high with five RBIs while going 2-for-3 with a walk, but the Sox couldn\u2019t hold on to the big lead and suffered a 9-7 loss.<\/p>\n

The next test started Monday as the Sox began a three-game road series against the Miami Marlins.\u00a0Montgomery entered the series 3-for-10 after the first three games of the young season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been really good,\u201d manager Will Venable said before Monday\u2019s game. \u201cHe\u2019s got his bat moving, looks dangerous again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on opening day<\/a>. He drew a walk in the fifth inning Saturday against Aaron Ashby, laying off some tough pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was that walk, and then a good base hit against a tough lefty (in Angel Zerpa during the seventh inning), that was really nice to see,\u201d Venable said. \u201cAnd then obviously (Sunday) he had a great day. So, yeah, it seems like he\u2019s in a good spot. All series, made good swing decisions for the most part. But now he\u2019s got the barrel moving pretty good right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery has also been steady defensively, whether at shortstop or third base, where he started on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes back to before the game,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cI\u2019m taking ground balls at short and third and challenging myself. I\u2019m trying to challenge myself with my work with the ground balls. Kind of just replicate things that might happen in a game. Slow choppers and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Infield coach Justin Jirschele) and everybody else do a good job of positioning me really well, too. It\u2019s really just being an athlete and I think that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the plate, Montgomery focused on getting back to his game plan throughout the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese first three games, you are coming out here and you\u2019ve got the big crowds and things like that,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cYou are not really used to it, so you kind of get out of your game plan and you are doing a little too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I felt. Really wasn\u2019t sticking to my game plan. Wasn\u2019t staying within myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery said he reminded himself, \u201cjust keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep trying to control things I can control,\u201d he said. \u201cIt led to seeing the ball a lot better and making better decisions. It kind of led to (Sunday).\u201d<\/p>\n

After the three tough games<\/a> in Milwaukee, the Sox turned their attention to the Marlins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of really good things (in the Milwaukee) series and we did some things that we need to improve on,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cIt\u2019s why you play 162 games, you keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 The Chicago White Sox needed a jolt after being outscored 20-3 in their first two games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[5,49,10448,6998,1816,778,58,4171,4,256],"class_list":["post-653392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-marlins","tag-baseball","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-grand-slam","tag-marlins","tag-miami","tag-miami-marlins","tag-miamimarlins","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116320639757986236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653392","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=653392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}