This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin’s White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CHICAGO -- The mental side of pitching is a part that Michael Kopech needs to conquer as much as the physical mechanical issues he works on between starts for the White Sox.

With that focus in mind, let’s move to an important moment of Kopech’s latest outing. In the second inning of an eventual 9-0 loss to the Orioles on Monday night at Camden Yards, Ryan O'Hearn singled and Cedric Mullins doubled. Kopech then retired Ramón Urías on a grounder to second baseman Lenyn Sosa and struck out Adam Frazier and Ryan McKenna.

That second-inning zero was the point of success for Kopech. But it was the pounding of his glove three times after getting McKenna to chase a slider for the third strike that showed the right-hander’s confidence was growing.

“Everybody has their own way of kind of mastering that part of the game, the mental side of the game,” Kopech told me during an interview this past weekend. “You see guys who carry themselves with a plethora of confidence, and that keeps them from ever feeling too down on themselves.

“Then you see guys who are extremely humble. Guys that come to mind are like the superstars of the league, Mike Trout, [Shohei] Ohtani. They are incredibly talented, and they are very assured of themselves. They don’t carry themselves with cockiness, but you can tell that there is no doubt in their mind.

“If you go out there feeling like your opponent is better than you at any point, then nine times out of 10 they are going to be,” Kopech added. “That’s what’s beautiful and difficult about this game that we play. It’s a chess match -- just a really physical one.”

Kopech has struggled within that chess match over his last 12 starts, posting a 6.62 ERA in 50 1/3 innings. He’s fanned 42 but has also walked 51 and allowed 13 home runs.

He did not complete six innings during any of those 12, with four straight starts in which he didn’t make it out of the fifth. The frustration shows at times on the mound, but those in-game moments don’t preclude Kopech from continuing his purposeful work to eventually become a “chess” master on the mound.

“It’s easy to kind of let your mind spin down that hole a little bit [and] get to a point of, ‘Woe is me,’” Kopech said. “Ultimately, that only leads to more issues, to more negativity, to not trusting yourself. And getting out of that [mindset] is the best way to overcome in this game as a team and as an individual. And there’s been times this year where I struggled to get out of it. That’s caused me to get my teeth kicked in a little bit.

“There have been times this year I’ve gone out there with a pretty good mindset and still got my teeth kicked in. Sometimes it’s part of the game and you have to accept it, but there’s always growth to be done, there’s always room for improvement. If we can continue doing that, from the bullpen to start, day in and day out, and the minuscule work in between, we’ll be in a pretty good position to bounce back from this at the end of this year and going into next year.”

Kopech leads the American League with 84 walks issued and is tied for fourth with Lance Lynn at 28 home runs allowed. There’s no doubt Kopech will be part of the 2024 White Sox rotation, with manager Pedro Grifol reinforcing that point over the weekend. The talent is there, as shown through Kopech’s 127 strikeouts and 106 hits allowed over 124 innings.

The 27-year-old also possesses a four-seam fastball with a 95.2 mph average, per Statcast, and has incorporated the changeup a little more within his repertoire. This season’s struggles haven’t stopped Kopech and the White Sox from trying to win, but they’ve also allowed Kopech to make adjustments at game speed while trying to win the mind game.

“There’s more opportunity to work on things,” Kopech said. “To have those opportunities and to be able to try to fine-tune things at the big league level is as good of a practice as you can have.

“Working hard will get you to a certain point. Mastering the mental side is what keeps guys in it for so long. I’ve been fortunate enough to play with guys who have had a good bit of time, and you see how they carry themselves. I would like to be one of those guys.”