MIAMI \u2014 Everson Pereira made sure his time away from Cactus League games didn\u2019t go to waste.<\/p>\n
Sidelined for a portion of spring training because of tightness in his right side<\/a>, the Chicago White Sox outfielder spent the period learning.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time that something happens, an injury happens \u2014 and of course this year it happened again \u2014 I try to learn as much as I can,\u201d Pereira said through an interpreter Monday afternoon at loanDepot park. \u201cAnd this year, especially, was a big one because I learned more about my hitting.<\/p>\n \u201cI used that time to learn, to improve my hitting skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Pereira, 24, reminded himself slow down.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m one of those players that is really excited and I want to crush every single pitch,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cJust try to slow the game down and breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n Pereira noted that his mindset got away from him in the first two games of the regular season when he went 0-for-6 with a walk and five strikeouts against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.<\/p>\n \u201cI forgot about it,\u201d he said with a chuckle. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been working on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Those spring camp lessons were on display over the next two games. Pereira had two hits on Sunday, including a solo home run, in the 9-7 loss to the Brewers<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt very good,\u201d Pereira said of the home run. \u201cVery good.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to get into a good rhythm at the home plate. (Sunday), I felt good. I felt good throughout the whole game.\u201d<\/p>\n The rhythm continued in Monday\u2019s series opener against the Marlins. Pereira ripped a double down the left-field line in the third inning, past diving third baseman Graham Pauley.<\/p>\n Pereira singled sharply to center in his next time up. He went 2-for-4 with two runs in the 9-4 victory, the team\u2019s first win of the season<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cStarting in spring training, he did a really good job of making some adjustments, and really got to give some credit to the hitting guys, too,\u201d manager Will Venable said before Monday\u2019s game. \u201cThey worked really well with Everson. Everson made some real adjustments to just get some more contact and be able to cover some of the pitches.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we saw him in that first game just being really jumpy, which is understandable, just kind of opening day jitters there, settled down now nicely in Game 2 and Game 3. We\u2019re seeing him cover a lot of pitches, and he\u2019s got a ton of power. He makes good swing decisions, so it\u2019s nice to see it coming together for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Continuing the topic of jitters, Venable said, \u201cIt\u2019s different for everybody. I felt them every single opening day. Sometimes depending on how the opening day went, you settle in more quickly if you\u2019re able to get a knock.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just part of the game where you spend all this time in spring training and going about your business and then the lights come on and it means something and it changes a little bit. You\u2019ve just got to find your bearings again.\u201d<\/p>\n Pereira found them. He showed no hesitation Monday and received a brief scare when he rolled an ankle, Venable said, after jumping into the right-field wall during an attempt to make a catch in the eighth inning. Pereira received a visit from the training staff, but remained in the game. He was not in Tuesday\u2019s starting lineup, but Venable said it was planned in advance.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s fine,\u201d Venable said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cHe\u2019s a little sore, and that\u2019s probably exaggerating almost, a little bit.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wanted to play. He fought me on it last night, but just thought it would be the best, not knowing exactly how he was going to feel today, just to preemptively give him the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Venable praised the effort on the play.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the replay, and he almost caught it,\u201d Venable said. \u201cIt was pretty impressive, really low catch probability, too. It would have been an impressive play.\u201d<\/p>\n The opportunities are coming for Pereira after he was traded to the Sox on Nov. 18<\/a> along with infielder Tanner Murray in a deal that sent pitchers Yoendrys G\u00f3mez and Steven Wilson to the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been an easy transition,\u201d Pereira said. \u201cI feel comfortable. They\u2019ve made me feel very comfortable and I feel good here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 Everson Pereira made sure his time away from Cactus League games didn\u2019t go to waste. Sidelined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,10857,58,4,256,396,2562,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-655475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicagowhitesox","12":"tag-everson-pereira","13":"tag-miami-marlins","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-mlb-baseball","16":"tag-white-sox","17":"tag-whitesox","18":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116326536728035647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655475","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=655475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}