HOUSTON – It was business as usual for this fun, young White Sox crew following a 5-1 victory over the Astros on Tuesday night at Daikin Park.
As a small group of media members waited to talk to manager Will Venable, Mike Vasil came flying up near the clubhouse door in a golf cart. He had gone to see Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington, Texas, to have his progress checked following Tommy John surgery this past Spring Training, but he sure wasn’t missing the victory celebration as he sprinted inside.
Assistant general manager Josh Barfield almost was a Vasil casualty as he came cruising up the tunnel.
Then there’s the mustaches … or the goatees, whichever one each White Sox player chooses. It’s an idea coming from veteran catcher Jake Rogers for the exciting final month of this tremendous season thus far.
“It’s ‘stache or goatee,” right fielder Randal Grichuk said. “You see some of the guys have a goatee. [Tristan] Peters rocking one of the best ones. I’m going to clean this up tonight and be ready to rock it with them.”
“I think it was Rogers who was talking about it yesterday,” starting pitcher Sean Burke said. “I always do a mustache at one point in the year. A new month, last month of the year, want to finish strong, feel like kind of changing it up, do a little team thing and get the mustache, goatees going."
There also was some pretty good baseball played by the South Siders, as has been the case all season for a team featuring a 73-65 record after improving to 3-2 on this seven-game road trip. And Tuesday’s success started with Burke.
Burke actually opened Tuesday much as he ended his last start – working outside the strike zone. But after walking an uncharacteristic eight over three-plus innings on Aug. 26 against Texas and walking Jeremy Peña and Yordan Alvarez to start things in the second game of this four-game set, Burke returned to dominant form.
He made it unscathed through the first, with help from a Jose Altuve fly ball caught at the left-field wall, and allowed one hit over 5 2/3 scoreless innings before giving way to Bryan Hudson. A mound visit from pitching coach Zach Bove after that second walk helped get Burke (8-6) back on track.
“[Bove] just kind of came at me like, 'Look, let's not go down this road again. Let's get back to what you're doing [well],’” Burke said. “I feel like I'm someone that you can get at me a little bit when I'm on the mound. One of those visits. From there it was kind of just talking throughout the innings and trying to make the adjustment. I felt like the third inning on, I felt a lot better."
Venable and Bove talked about a mound visit after the initial walk if Burke walked the second hitter, as he did.
“There was still some frustration from [Burke after] the first couple, just not finding his groove,” Venable said. “But he was able to get on track there in the third or fourth, and pitched really nicely.”
“A little bit out of my plane of rotation, my arm was climbing a little bit,” Burke said. “The glove arm was kind of yanking, so just trying to stay closed, stay through my glove arm and just let the arm kind of unwind and the stuff was much better."
With six strikeouts and four walks over 104 pitches, Burke reached 154 2/3 innings this season, representing the first time in his career he has pitched more than 150.
Houston pitching walked seven batters Tuesday after walking 10 on Monday, and Sam Antonacci was hit with a pitch, extending his single-season club record for HBPs to 25.
Andrew Benintendi came through with a run-scoring single to right, and Colson Montgomery, who homered and doubled in Monday’s loss, doubled home two more off Kai-Wei Teng during a three-run fifth. Grichuk added a two-run double in the seventh to complete the scoring, once again following two free passes in the frame.
Tuesday’s win maintained the White Sox three-game lead in the American League Central over the Guardians (70-68), who toppled the Blue Jays at home behind Gavin Williams. They also moved back to 3 1/2 games ahead of the Astros for the potential No. 2 seed in the AL playoffs.
They are ready for the September finish, and will be sporting a different look in the process.
"Yeah I'll carry [the mustache] on,” a smiling Burke said.