{"id":738955,"date":"2026-06-29T23:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/738955\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:09:17","slug":"chicago-white-sox-pitching-staff-trending-in-the-right-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/738955\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago White Sox: Pitching staff ‘trending in the right direction’"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2014 Their place in the standings<\/a> hasn\u2019t impacted the way the Chicago White Sox are going about their business on the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, being at the top of the standings is awesome but it doesn\u2019t change kind of our internal goals or even the conversations that happened in spring training,\u201d pitching coach Zach Bove said Sunday morning at Rate Field. \u201cWe know what we want to accomplish as a staff and specifically each guy individually. So as a group we are definitely trending in the right direction, but not satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach guy is finding ways to improve their game, whether it\u2019s micro or macro level. Where we are at doesn\u2019t change the message day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sox entered Monday\u2019s series opener against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards tied for first place in the American League Central with the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons for their success is starter Davis Martin<\/a>, who is putting up All-Star-type numbers with a 9-3 record and a 3.00 ERA in 16 starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe year he\u2019s had, hope he gets the (All-Star) opportunity, he deserves it,\u201d Bove said. \u201cHis journey has been awesome. The injuries (Tommy John surgery in May 2023), he\u2019s been through this org, the org drafted him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see him have the success. We all know he\u2019s a great dude, works hard. This doesn\u2019t surprise me. It was always there, now he\u2019s having the opportunity to do it consistently and we\u2019re all getting the benefit of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago White Sox starting pitcher Sean Burke is congratulated in the dugout after shutting down the Cleveland Guardians in the second inning of a game at Rate Field in Chicago on June 23, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Further looking at the rotation, Bove noted that Monday\u2019s starter Sean Burke\u2019s \u201cstuff has upticked, the execution of the pitches has upticked.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it appears lefty Noah Schultz is nearing a return from the injured list (right knee patellar tendinitis).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s feeling really good and it is very likely that we activate him to start on Wednesday,\u201d manager Will Venable said on Monday at Camden Yards.<\/p>\n

When Schultz is back, an emphasis will continue to be on combating right-handed batters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like the lefties he\u2019s going to be really good at,\u201d Bove said. \u201cMake sure the usages are dialed, make sure the count leverage is in a good spot. That\u2019s been the focus down there in Triple A the past couple of (injury rehab) starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean Newcomb made a start recently as part of a bullpen game. He threw 42 pitches in three innings on June 20 at Detroit and then 45 pitches in 2 2\/3 innings back in a relief role for the save on June 23 against the Cleveland Guardians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bove said Newcomb, who has a 2.54 ERA in 31 outings (one start), \u201chas been awesome for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fits this very unique role where he can go one-plus, two, two-plus (innings) especially when we need it,\u201d Bove said. \u201cWe are treating it day by day, who is available in the \u2019pen, what\u2019s the starter at and he\u2019s also a Swiss Army knife where he can go short leverage or long leverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago White Sox pitcher Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez pitches during the ninth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Rate Field on Monday, June 22, 2026, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Grant Taylor continues to be a go-to pitcher for high-leverage relief situations. He threw 18 strikes in his 19 pitches during two hitless innings in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 victory<\/a> against the Kansas City Royals.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery crispy,\u201d Bove said of the performance that included four strikeouts. \u201cIt was a pretty electric outing. I actually asked him out there if that was his best outing of the year and he said, \u2018Yeah, definitely up there.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t ask for more. Dominant, attack the zone, a couple of strikeouts. It was awesome, and exactly what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a pair of blown saves<\/a> in recent appearances, the Sox utilized reliever Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez in the sixth inning Sunday against the Royals, where he got in a rhythm with two strikeouts in a scoreless frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have 100% trust in (Dom\u00ednguez) \u2014 but what\u2019s the best time to get him to get some positive momentum going?\u201d Bove said before the game.<\/p>\n

Dom\u00ednguez said after the outing that he was \u201cjust trying to find a way to get back to being who I am and trying to find a way to make my adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adjustments continue for all the pitchers across the board, with Bove\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cZach has been awesome,\u201d Venable said Monday. \u201cI think one of the things that I\u2019ve noticed about those really good pitching coaches that I\u2019ve been around is they\u2019re really practical, and they\u2019re OK being in that space, and Zach I think is one of those guys, where he\u2019s really smart, but he\u2019s just really practical and just does what works and keeps things simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think our players respond to that. I think we\u2019re seeing that in how we\u2019re trying to maintain count leverage and just make it about the simple things and understanding how to utilize your strengths to do those things and execute them. Zach\u2019s been awesome from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 Their place in the standings hasn\u2019t impacted the way the Chicago White Sox are going about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,2561,5285,4,256,3423,2539,396,24627,2562,58337],"class_list":["post-738955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-davis-martin","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-pitching","tag-seranthony-dominguez","tag-white-sox","tag-white-sox-rotation","tag-whitesox","tag-zach-bove"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116835920575854060","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738955","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=738955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}