Jose Abreu came up in the ideal situation in the fifth inning Friday against the Seattle Mariners.
Bases loaded. No outs.
The Chicago White Sox first baseman hit a grounder to third baseman Donovan Walton, who fired home for the first out. Catcher Brian O’Keefe threw to first for a double play. Tim Anderson, who started at second on the play, never stopped running. He attempted to score and was called out at the plate, completing a triple play.
The unusual sequence stood out in the seven-inning Cactus League game, which ended in a 2-2 tie at Camelback Ranch.
Here are three takeaways from Sox camp.
1. Jonathan Stiever displayed his ‘good assortment’ of pitches.
White Sox starter Jonathan Stiever’s Friday began with a strikeout.
It ended one inning later with another strikeout.
The right-hander allowed one run on three hits with the two strikeouts in his first appearance of the spring.
“(I) focused on going after hitters and getting ahead early in the count and attacking the strike zone and seeing how the game went seeing how it was working and how the hitters reacted to my pitchers,” Stiever said. “Get my feet wet and get it out of the way.”
Stiever, 23, made his big-league debut last season. He went 0-1 with a 9.95 ERA and three strikeouts in two starts.
“The biggest takeaway was stuff, know what kind of pitcher you are that day especially and pitching to your strengths rather than what the hitter might be struggling at, might not be good at matching up to your stuff, per se,” Stiever said.
“Just figuring out how to have your strengths every day, pitching off that and not worrying about the other side.”
Stiever hadn’t pitched above Class A before making his first major-league start Sept. 13 against the Detroit Tigers. He provides starting pitching depth for the organization.
“Watching him, you can tell he likes to compete, has a good delivery, has a good assortment,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said of Stiever.
Stiever doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
“There is so much talent on this team, a lot of competition to make a rotation spot,” Stiever said. “The ultimate goal for everyone here is to contribute to a winning team at the major-league level, which we’re in a great position to do so.
“For me it comes down to focusing on my five-day routine, not getting too far ahead and taking baby steps to how I can get there — what can I do in the short term, medium term to ultimately get there and help us win games.”
2. The Sox celebrated Nick Madrigal’s birthday in a unique way.
Several players wore “Mr. 3,000” Nick Madrigal shirts during the morning workout at Camelback Ranch. The shirt, a reference to the Bernie Mac baseball movie, featured a photo of Madrigal instead of Mac.
Madrigal mentioned the prospects of a 3,000-hit career on a recent NBC Sports Chicago White Sox podcast. The players had fun with the comment Friday, which was Madrigal’s 24th birthday.
Madrigal was among the Sox wearing one of the shirts.
Madrigal in 2020 slashed .340/.376/.369 in 29 games after being called up from the Schaumburg training facility July 31. He had 35 hits, including three doubles, in his first season in the big leagues.
“I think he understood it was all done with respect and a lot of team affection,” said La Russa, who didn’t want to say how it came together. “It’s really a cute shirt. It’s very witty.”
3. Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito give Sox fans ‘a lot to look forward to.’
Jonathan Lucroy called it a “privilege” to work with Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn.
“White Sox fans, you have a lot to look forward to,” Lucroy said.
Lucroy caught Giolito on Tuesday against the Texas Rangers at Camelback Ranch and Lynn on Thursday against the San Francisco Giants in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“He’s able to throw all four of his pitches any time, any count, anywhere,” Lucroy said of Lynn. “And whenever you can do that, you’re going to be successful. And he did that (Thursday), he did that really well the last couple of years in Texas.
“I had a lot of fun catching him, and he’s going to do really good this year, he’s going to be a really big part of this.”
Lynn struck out three in two scoreless innings.
“You saw him get ahead and put hitters away (and) you saw him fall behind and had the pitches and the command to get even and out them away,” La Russa said of Lynn. “I thought it was excellent. He felt excellent.”
La Russa also liked what he saw Thursday from reliever Evan Marshall, who struck out two in a perfect inning.
“Evan’s been throwing that way since the first bullpen,” La Russa said. “He’s ready for the season to start. He must’ve done a lot of good things this winter. A lot of quality pitches. Two guys (Lynn and Marshall) we’re counting on, that was an exciting part of the day.”
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