CLEVELAND -- The White Sox unorthodox pitching strategy will continue in Game 2 of the American League Division Series, as manager Will Venable confirmed they will utilize lefty Anthony Kay as an opener ahead of right-hander Sean Burke on Monday at Progressive Field.
Burke, who started Game 2 of the AL Wild Card series and struck out eight over four innings, will pitch in a bulk role after Kay faces the top of Cleveland’s order that includes the left-handed hitting Steven Kwan, switch-hitter José Ramírez and lefty Chase DeLauter. It’s similar to the White Sox game plan in their 3-0 win on Friday in a bullpen game started by lefty Hagen Smith, although Burke is available for a longer outing than Smith, who went 2 2/3 innings.
“It’s just everybody kind of doing their own individual role,” Burke said. “Just do anything you can to kind of help the team. Throw a zero and just pass the baton to the next guy. This is really just like a team effort from top to bottom, bottom to top.”
Burke, 26, is coming off his first postseason start, in which he filled the strike zone up but also surrendered three solo homers to the Astros. But Venable said he’s not worried about the long balls being an issue again and was impressed by Burke’s ability to get ahead of hitters.
“I thought he did great,” Venable said. “One of the things that we really monitor and kind of how we evaluate guys' performance is the race to two strikes. Getting to two strikes before two balls. ... If he's got command and he's being effective in the zone, he's going to get a lot of outs no matter who he's facing.”
Burke is coming off a breakout regular season that saw him post a 3.34 ERA with 185 strikeouts in 172 1/3 innings. Pitching behind an opener isn’t new for him either, as he made 27 starts but pitched behind an opener five times this year and six times in ’25.
He’s also fared well against the Guardians in his career, with a 2.56 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings. He was particularly effective against them this year, going 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings. He noted their lineup makes a lot of contact but that it doesn’t change his mentality of being aggressive in the zone. Burke is able to keep hitters off-balance with his wide assortment of pitches, including his four-seamer, knuckle-curve, slider, sinker and cutter.
“I think just getting ahead of them, that's the biggest thing,” Burke said. “I talked about that a lot this year and that's been my main focus. More times than not, if I get ahead of guys early and go to pitcher's counts, I'm going to put people away, and I'm going to take control of the at-bat, and I think this is kind of the same thing.”
So while pitching behind an opener isn’t as glamorous as getting the start, Burke said he has no qualms with it and just wants to help the White Sox continue their incredible and unexpected run.
“I dreamed of the World Series when I dreamed of playoff starts,” Burke said. “So whatever's going to get us to the World Series, I'm all in on doing that.”
The White Sox would love to see Burke pitch as deep as possible after Kay, but they could have both right-hander Grant Taylor and Smith available despite their heroic performances in Game 1. Smith started and threw 2 2/3 hitless innings on 51 pitches while Taylor hurled four scoreless frames to get a rare 12-out save on 42 pitches.
Venable said they will check on both Smith and Taylor and will continue to deploy them based on availability and matchups. Neither is expected to pitch as many innings as they did on Saturday but they’re helped by Sunday’s off-day and another one looming on Tuesday.
“We really like Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith,” Venable said. “Obviously, there's a lot to like with these guys and we want to use them to win games, but we want to be responsible, also. We don't want injuries. If Grant is going to pitch four innings every game, I think we'd, like, kill him, right? So we’re taking it game by game.”