{"id":665375,"date":"2026-04-05T22:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665375\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:47:14","slug":"stabilized-pitching-staff-strong-defense-yield-white-sox-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/665375\/","title":{"rendered":"Stabilized pitching staff, strong defense yield White Sox sweep"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the White Sox<\/a> returned to Chicago after their 1-5 opening road trip, there was a collective sense that they needed to regroup. Coming into the season, expectations were high that the Sox could at least take a step toward being a team that puts three consecutive 100-loss seasons behind them, but after the first week, things were looking bleak.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at that road trip and you could say that this season, all the momentum we\u2019ve had, all the excitement we\u2019ve had all offseason, if that carries into this homestand, you could say that it might be too much to overcome,\u201d Davis Martin said.<\/p>\n

The rain that postponed Thursday\u2019s home opener may have been a much-needed blessing in disguise. It gave the White Sox a chance to stabilize themselves, from the coaching staff to the players in the locker room.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it starts with Will [Venable] saying \u2018Hey guys, this isn\u2019t what we did in spring, this isn\u2019t the kind of baseball that we practiced and drilled in for six, seven weeks in spring training,’\u201d Martin said. \u201cThe rain delay off day kind of came at the perfect time. Gave everybody a day to kind of collect their thoughts at home, settle in at Chicago and come to the field excited, ready to go for this homestand. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a culmination of it, but there was a visible effort and conversations being had of \u2018Hey, we need to steer this in the right direction now.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Three games later, with a sweep of the defending American League champion Blue Jays under their belt, the White Sox look like they have righted the ship, or at least not let the opening road trip carry over at home. Key to doing that was getting the pitching staff sorted out. Grant Taylor as opener worked in back-to-back games to begin the Toronto series, and Martin cruised for six shutout innings on Sunday en route to a 3-0 White Sox victory.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s quite the shift from how they looked through the first six games, when the Sox posted a league-worst ERA<\/a> of 7.63. The pitching staff looks in better shape, and the opening week stumbles might have been at least partially due to adjusting to a lot of new faces in player development and on the coaching staff. <\/p>\n

Pregame meetings and planning look a little different than even just last year, and Martin\u2019s quality start on Sunday \u2014 the first the Sox have had in 2026 \u2014 might be a sign that the new process is settling in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the routine we have this year,\u201d catcher Edgar Quero said. \u201cWe focus a little bit more on that stuff this year, and I\u2019m happy for that. The result is coming right now, and we\u2019re feeling pretty good about that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key to the pitchers performing more like they did this weekend all season is encouraging them to attack the strike zone and trust their defense to make plays behind them, manager Will Venable said. Considering the Sox were one of the worst-ranked defensive teams in baseball in 2025<\/a>, that\u2019s perhaps easier said than done, but the results so far this year have been encouraging.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re still not great through the very small sample size of nine games into the 2026 season, but there are plenty of positive signs. Just the last two days have provided a defensive highlight reel from the Sox, with contributions coming from multiple spots in the field. Miguel Vargas has played an impressive third base, Luisangel Acu\u00f1a made a sliding catch in center field on Sunday, and newcomer Tanner Murray joined in on the glovework in his debut.<\/p>\n

Called up before Sunday\u2019s game when Everson Pereira was placed on the 10-day injured list, Murray made what his starting pitcher called a momentum-shifting play at shortstop when he nabbed Addison Barger\u2019s ground ball up the middle and threw him out at first with the bases loaded in the third inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the turning point of that game, he solidified that win for us,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

Murray popped out twice at the plate, but that play was as satisfying as getting his first major league hit, Murray said. Before the game, he emphasized his willingness to do whatever the Sox needed to help the team win, up to and including being the waterboy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost fell over when I got it,\u201d Murray said. \u201cI turned around and saw hundreds of faces and I was like, Mune\u2019s got me somewhere over there. I threw it to him, he made the play and we got out of the inning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those kinds of plays are a part of the overall recipe that Venable knows the Sox need to keep their pitchers going after opposing hitters the way he wants them to. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a huge impact,\u201d Venable said of his defense. \u201cWe are asking our pitchers to be aggressive within the zone. We know contact is going to follow that. To have a defense go out there and turn those balls into outs, it means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s defensive performance supported the pitching staff and allowed them to scatter the Blue Jays\u2019 hits enough that despite Toronto getting on base nearly as many times as the White Sox did, they only got a runner as far as third base one time all afternoon.<\/p>\n

Though the negative momentum of the first week could easily have carried over into this first homestand and likely buried any hopes of the Sox taking a positive step forward this season, the frustrating part for fans is that things don\u2019t work as easily in reverse. Three good games against the Blue Jays can easily be negated in the next series or next road trip. Continuing to move in the right direction is a much slower process.<\/p>\n

But maybe a series sweep so early in the season is a good sign in that regard, just as much as it was a showcase of how the Sox will need to win games all year.<\/p>\n

\u201cContributions from everybody. With the way our group is set up, that\u2019s how we are going to have to win games,\u201d Venable said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to have to be with defense. It\u2019s going to be with different guys on offense. On the pitching staff, we had guys coming out of the bullpen today who were able to throw effective innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need every single one of those guys to come in those big situations. Everyone on the roster has to contribute. I think this weekend was a really good example of how important that is to have contributions across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AprMatt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the White Sox returned to Chicago after their 1-5 opening road trip, there was a collective sense…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-665375","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-mlb","13":"tag-white-sox","14":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116354539088944987","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665375","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=665375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}