KANSAS CITY, Mo. – As the White Sox plotted their rotation order for the end of the regular season, wildly divergent scenarios lay in front of them.
If they edge out the Guardians and win the American League Central, the Sox would almost certainly claim the No. 2 seed in the AL bracket, and have five days off between their regular season finale and Game 1 of the ALDS. If the Sox stay in the third Wild Card spot they clinched on Thursday, their first playoff game will be next Tuesday, and no one who starts this weekend against the Rockies would be rested enough to be an option for it.
Ultimately, manager Will Venable said playoff rotation ordering didn’t guide their thinking to pick David Sandlin to start Thursday in Kansas City, before having the top of their rotation in Sean Burke, Davis Martin and Anthony Kay finish out the season.
“We’re just not in a position to line guys up,” Venable said before Sandlin threw six innings of one-run ball in a 9-1 victory. “The division is very much in our sights too. We want to do everything we can to put our best foot forward.”
After Monday’s off day, the Sox could have pushed Burke up to start Thursday on regular rest, and be in line to pitch again in Game 1 of a Wild Card series on Tuesday. But with Burke already at a professional career-high in innings, Martin battling right calf discomfort that shortened his last outing, and Kay six starts removed from the last time he completed five innings, Venable felt granting his starters an extra day of rest was more important.
“It gets to a point where you want to make sure that those guys are at their best when it matters the most, which is these four games,” Venable said.
Castillo sidelined
After getting booted from the rotation and yielding a grand slam in a low-leverage relief appearance on Tuesday, trade deadline headliner Luis Castillo was unlikely to have a role on a White Sox playoff roster. That became all but official on Thursday, as the Sox placed Castillo on the injured list with right shoulder impingement. Reliever Tyler Davis was recalled from Triple-A Charlotte to fill Castillo’s spot and pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
Castillo has a 8.42 ERA in a Sox uniform.
Martin not blaming calf for midseason swoon
If Davis Martin had his way, the right calf discomfort he’s been managing since April would’ve been something he disclosed during a Sox World Series parade, with no one knowing he’d been playing through pain until the season was over.
Even now that he’s stabilized things to the tune of an 0.89 ERA across four September outings, Martin isn’t inclined to blame his calf for the 7.06 ERA he ran from June through August.
“To be honest, I think it’s been getting back to being me, my personality, and that’s not an angry person,” Martin told the Sun-Times. “I was very angry because I was just mad at my results, mad at what was going on, and obviously you have mechanical issues on top of that.”
Simultaneously, Martin explains that maintaining an upright posture on the mound is critical for his command, and that unless his right arm falls off, he’s good to pitch.
