HOUSTON -- The White Sox will go with a bullpen day in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series on Tuesday against the Astros at Daikin Park, with first pitch set for 4 p.m. CT, as rookie Hagen Smith gets the starting nod.
“We have a tentative game plan right now,” said White Sox manager Will Venable. “We have these guys out there throwing right now.
“Depending on how some guys feel and as we are trying to match up availability with how these guys are feeling. We'll map it out a little bit more with more certainty after these guys throw, but you can expect more of a bullpen type game from us.”
Davis Martin started Saturday’s loss to the Rockies but didn’t get out of the first, throwing only 25 pitches over two-thirds of an inning. One thought was the right-hander returning Tuesday as part of the configuration.
Erick Fedde has been outstanding over four September appearances, posting a 1.53 ERA. He would be another bulk option, although with talented young relievers such as Smith, who has a 1.29 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 28 innings, Noah Schultz and Grant Taylor available to Venable, it might be closer to a pure bullpen day as opposed to an opener and bulk hurler.
“There could be a lot of different ways we go about it,” Venable said. “I would anticipate less of a traditional bulk guy in there, although guys who you might have seen in bulk may pitch in shorter stints. There's a lot on the table, but kind of having a traditional opener followed by a three- or four-inning bulk guy is probably not how we're going to go about it.”
“It’s more leaning into what we feel our strengths are,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said. “That would be some guys that we've used in the bullpen. Have we been creative at times? Have we needed to be creative? Yeah, we feel like we've needed to be. But when you have some of the weapons that we do in our bullpen, finding as many opportunities as we can to pitch those particular players, I think it's more than the overall state of our pitching.”
Sean Burke, the team’s top starter from season’s opening to close, pitched Friday in a victory over the Rockies. He would be on regular rest to start Wednesday’s Game 2, with Hunter Brown getting the nod for the Astros.
When asked Monday if he had thought about Wednesday’s starter, Venable smiled and said, “Nope.”
“I’ve been dreaming of doing that since I was 4 years old,” Burke said of a playoff start. “It’s going to be special.”
According to Burke, every dream he had about starting a playoff game resulted in a victory. Then again, why would it not?
This versatility across the White Sox pitching staff could be a plus in getting creative during the postseason.
“We kind of joke around that we have 13 pitchers and don’t really have starters or bullpen,” Burke said. “That versatility of our pitching staff and playing important games down the stretch. They aren’t playoff games but we’ve been in must-win situations and had to go through stretches where we hadn’t played well and had played well on the road, at home.
“Coming out of this division race, playoff race, whatever it may be, it was good to get familiar with that situation. Just kind of play our game. Nothing else changes here. The stakes are a little bit higher, but at the end of the day it’s still baseball.”
SUPPORT FROM ABOVE
Getz expects White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf to be in Houston, continuing to support his general manager in this move from three straight seasons with at least 100 losses to the postseason.
“He's supported me from the beginning and obviously very grateful for that, to have some of that,” Getz said. “He really believed in me and believed in the vision. And he's supported our group throughout.
“We've made a good team. It's definitely rewarding that he gets this sense of excitement for us to be playing in the playoffs. That's part of why we feel really good about things right now."