{"id":800181,"date":"2026-09-09T01:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T01:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/800181\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T01:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T01:18:21","slug":"column-the-pressure-is-on-the-chicago-white-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/800181\/","title":{"rendered":"Column: The pressure is on the Chicago White Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inserted the words \u201cChicago White Sox magic number\u201d into Google on Tuesday and came up with a picture of Mike Vasil and his magic wand.<\/p>\n

Oh well.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, the White Sox are close to pulling off one of the most amazing sports stories in years \u2014 going to the postseason two years after setting a modern major-league record with 121 losses.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a done deal, and there\u2019s still a key three-game series with the Cleveland Guardians next week, which could virtually clinch the division<\/a> or push them into the wild-card race. Either way, every game carries weight these days, and the pressure is on manager Will Venable and his players.<\/p>\n

The Sox began a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Rate Field on Tuesday, hours after a group of mayoral candidates met with residents and other politicians outside the ballpark to protest a plan<\/a> to move an Amtrak maintenance facility to Bridgeport to make room for a potential new South Loop stadium<\/a> for future Sox owner Justin Ishbia.<\/p>\n

The intersection of the American League pennant race, the Chicago mayoral race and another stadium controversy is purely coincidental, unless, of course, you think Ishbia released his plan now to take advantage of the good vibes surrounding the Sox, and that the mayoral candidates knew it would be a hot-button topic that would get them on the 10 o\u2019clock news.<\/p>\n

\"RateRate Field in Chicago is seen in Chicago before a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 8, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has stayed out of the stadium\/Amtrak conversation, as is standard operating procedure for the longtime owner, who had steadfastly refused to talk about his Sox publicly. He even released a statement on Ozzie Guill\u00e9n Day<\/a> instead of giving a tribute at the ceremony, perhaps in fear of being booed. Guill\u00e9n coaxed Sox fans into applauding Reinsdorf, a rarity these days.<\/p>\n

These are strange days for Sox fans, who just want to see some home games in October again. The Sox have played only two home playoff games in front of real fans since 2008, and none since 2021.<\/p>\n

And that brings us back to Venable and the Sox players, who are hoping to rectify that situation with a three-game lead over the Guardians and 19 games remaining entering Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Even after five-plus months of the season, it\u2019s crazy to think this Sox team can get to a World Series with some luck and pluck.<\/p>\n

The rotation is lacking an ace, and two of their best hitters \u2014 Munetaka Murakami<\/a> and Colson Montgomery \u2014 have been slumping for weeks. None of general manager Chris Getz\u2019s trade acquisitions have panned out, and the team lacks the experience of playoff-ready teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and maybe even the Toronto Blue Jays, whom they could play in the AL Division Series.<\/p>\n

Venable said it\u2019s his job, like any other manager, to be a tone-setter for his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re uptight about it, they\u2019re going to be uptight about it,\u201d he said before Tuesday\u2019s game. \u201cWe also just need to do everything we can to make sure that we\u2019re still bringing joy and levity and humor to our environment and we\u2019re not so serious. That\u2019s not how we got here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Sox outfielder Tommy Pham, left, greets a Twins player during batting practice at Rate Field on Sept. 4, 2026, in Chicago. (John J. Kim\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Bringing in the always joyful and humor-filled Tommy Pham<\/a> seemed to be a move that flew in the face of the idea of a tight-knit Sox clubhouse. But so far so good, even though he went on the injured list after only one game.<\/p>\n

Sure, Pham berated an MLB Players Union rep in the clubhouse Tuesday when the poor kid made the grave mistake of asking if he wanted to fill out a players\u2019 award ballot, like many of the rest of the players had done.<\/p>\n

Pham went into a prolonged rant about the CBA and how the union did nothing for veteran players like him, and told the young rep to relay his feelings to MLBPA executive Bruce Meyer, who is negotiating for the players as they try to remain the last major sport without a salary cap. Unfortunately, no players were around to hear Pham\u2019s rant, and the media just watched in amazement.<\/p>\n

After his pregame press briefing, I asked Venable if this Sox team would be where it was without being a tight-knit bunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would not be in the same position,\u201d he replied. \u201cWe would not win as many games. If you look at the things that are clear indicators of why this club has success, potentially at the top of the list is the clubhouse environment, the clubhouse culture, and how they support each other on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venable said he has guidelines, but the players have to police themselves. He considered Andrew Benintendi and Randal Grichuk as the \u201cgatekeepers\u201d of how \u201cwe conduct our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told Venable I asked because of the narrative that Pham could upset the precious clubhouse chemistry. The media, including myself, often write about \u201cchemistry\u201d without really knowing what goes on behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

Venable said that speculation came \u201cfrom people who don\u2019t understand who Tommy is.\u201d He coached Pham in Boston, and if he felt Pham would spoil the camaraderie, he wouldn\u2019t have signed off on Getz\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI value what we have in this clubhouse as much or more than anything that we have,\u201d Venable said. \u201cAs we\u2019re introducing any person to that group, that\u2019s something that\u2019s under very high scrutiny and we want to make sure we get that right. In Tommy\u2019s case, I was excited about the opportunity to bring him into this group because I know what he brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it. A lot of times in baseball guys have developed reputations broadly, and certainly I get that. There are so many guys on teams I\u2019ve been on that we traded for, and you hear terrible things. You\u2019re like, \u2018Where did this come from? This guy is awesome.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you really never know until you know somebody, and I\u2019ve known Tommy from the past. He\u2019s a really good guy and speaks up and is honest about his values. He\u2019s got really good values that are in line with my values and in line with the organization\u2019s values. We love him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be an interesting stretch run, to say the least.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s sit back and see how they respond to the pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inserted the words \u201cChicago White Sox magic number\u201d into Google on Tuesday and came up with a picture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[1000,5,138,49,2561,10448,6251,17183,4,256,73,64,1448,8567,8,396,2562,998],"class_list":["post-800181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-white-sox","tag-andrew-benintendi","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chicagowhitesox","tag-colson-montgomery","tag-jerry-reinsdorf","tag-justin-ishbia","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-randal-grichuk","tag-rate-field","tag-tommy-pham","tag-white-sox","tag-whitesox","tag-will-venable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117238452033144599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800181","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=800181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}