Tristan Peters’ magical debut season continues with AL Rookie of the Month honors
HOUSTON — He’s already hit for a cycle, made the All-Star team, and homered in five consecutive games, so winning American League rookie of the month for August shouldn’t feel like it’s breaking new ground for White Sox centerfielder Tristan Peters.
“The story of Tristan this year has been incredible,” said manager Will Venable. “He just continues to one-up himself and the honors just continue to roll in here. I’m just so proud of him.”
But Peters came out of the All-Star break in a 4-for-48 slump, and slashing .320/.414/.640 in 27 games in August, alongside his sterling outfield defense, has affirmed that he’s no first-half fluke.
“It means a lot,” Peters said of the honor. “Getting back to sitting on my back side a little more, seeing the ball a little better. I think that helped a lot, just working with both hitting coaches.”
After hitting half of his 12 homers this year in August, Peters feels staying coiled on his back hip has allowed him to pull the ball in the air more frequently. While Venable noted that the Sox’ in-house projections liked Peters plenty when he was acquired in December, especially his defense, but his extra-base power has been a pleasant surprise.
He’s accessing it efficiently.
“I’ve been saying kind of as a joke, if you pull the ball you don’t need to hit it as hard,” said Peters.
Night and day
It’s rare to see a team taking batting practice on the field before any day game, let alone the finale of a seven-game road trip, as the White Sox did on Thursday.
Rather than a response to being shut out on just three hits on Wednesday, it’s part of the team trying to address an enormous split between their boffo offensive performance at night (.760 OPS), and paltry production in day games (.675 OPS).
“Trying to find solutions to play better during day games, which is something that we haven’t been doing a great job of,” Venable said. “Getting the boys fired up a little bit and a little bit of a different way, see if it has an impact and see if it leads to more runs for day games.”
Teel nearing return?
Kyle Teel caught a full game on Wednesday night for the second time in his Triple-A rehab assignment for his left ankle sprain. The Sox manager’s demeanor did more to suggest his starting catcher will be activated this weekend than the full transcript might indicate.
“Close, he’s close,” Venable said.
Hindsight is 20/20
In the immediate wake of Wednesday’s 2-0 loss, Venable defended not pinch-running for catcher Drew Romo by citing the importance of his defense. But when asked the next day if catchers are exempt for his typical eagerness to use substitutions, his self-assessment was more blunt.
“If you could do it all over again, I’m pinch-running for him,” Venable said. “You can call it a miss, a mess-up.”
Pitching churn
With Davis Martin back in the rotation and Erick Fedde scheduled to start on Friday, Jose Urquidy will move to long relief. Urquidy has a 4.58 ERA in 17 2/3 innings with the Sox, and his best work has been behind an opener.
Tyler Gilbert cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Tuesday, and was outrighted to Triple-A Charlotte.