WHITE SOX HEADLINES OF SEPTEMBER 15, 2018

Bullpen hangs on after Shields baffles O's Right-hander dominates for first road win since Opening Day By Scott Merkin / MLB.com / September 14, 2018

Back on March 29, picked up the victory for the White Sox in their season opener against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

All was right with the world for the South Siders at that time. That contest also happened to mark the veteran hurler's last road win until Friday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where the White Sox held on for an 8-6 victory over the Orioles.

View Full Game Coverage Shields was steady as usual, allowing two Trey Mancini solo homers over six innings, while striking out five and walking one. He pitched at least six innings for the 24th time in 2018 and ended a stretch of 12 straight appearances (11 starts) on the road without a victory.

• With calf improving, Davidson available vs. O's

"This year's been kind of a struggle getting the [wins]," Shields told reporters after improving to 7-16. "I've thrown a lot of quality starts this year, and unfortunately, it just hasn't gone my way. The guys are grinding for me. There's no doubt about that. Tonight was a great night, and I'm glad I could do my part."

"James gave us another quality start," White Sox manager Rick Renteria told reporters. "I still think he wanted to go back out, especially with a five- lead. I know he didn't want to come out, but I thought it was the right time. It was a good victory for him."

The White Sox built up a five-run lead behind home runs from Avisail Garcia and Omar Narvaez and three hits from Yoan Moncada. But the Orioles scored four in the seventh to creep within one.

Jace Fry and Nate Jones finished off the White Sox second straight victory, and their second victory in four games on this nine-game road trip. Jones picked up his single-season career-best fifth , and his first since May 22, also against Baltimore. Jones was out from June 13 to Sept. 10 with a pronator strain.

"They kept chipping away," Renteria said. "I guess it wasn't the cleanest game, but it was nonetheless a good effort by everybody, just to keep playing and try to get it done."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Cordell gets No. 1: After the Orioles cut the White Sox lead to one in the seventh, Ryan Cordell gave Fry a little more room for error in the eighth with his first career in the top half of the frame, which also was his first career . Cordell connected on a 3-1 from Tanner Scott to raise the margin to 8-6. The drive had a 107-mph exit velocity and traveled 419 feet per Statcast™.

"It was pretty cool, definitely after that tough bottom half of the seventh inning, to come out and get a little momentum back in our favor was pretty big," said Cordell, who got the ball back from the fan who retrieved it and told reporters he will give the ball to his parents. The fan received a bat and a ball in return.

"I was probably pressing a little bit to get that first one," Cordell added. "Took quite a few ABs, but glad it's out of the way, but we just go from here."

Near miss: almost changed the outcome of this game with one swing of the bat in the Orioles' big seventh. But his drive to the short porch in right with the bases loaded and one out was caught by Garcia with a half-leap against the wall. It scored one on a sacrifice fly instead of four on a grand slam.

HE SAID IT "It was tough conditions out there today. It was really misty, so the mound was really wet. Overall, pretty good game." -- Shields

UP NEXT Right-hander Reynaldo Lopez is scheduled to make his 30th start of the season, 16th on the road and first vs. Baltimore, with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT Saturday night. Yefry Ramirez gets the start for the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Lopez has received a no-decision in seven of his last eight starts, with the lone win coming against the Yankees in a seven-inning, one-run outing.

With calf improving, Davidson available vs. O's By Jeff Seidel / MLB.com / September 14, 2018

BALTIMORE -- Matt Davidson's sore left calf, which kept him out of the past three games, has improved and he will be available to play against Baltimore this weekend. He did not start Friday's series opener at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but White Sox manager Rick Renteria said he can play if needed.

"Today's better; he's doing good," Renteria said. "He's available now. If the situation arises, and we think we can use him, we'll use him."

View Full Game Coverage Davidson has a .310 average with two homers and eight RBIs in his past 12 games. The White Sox dropped two of three in Kansas City.

Davidson banged out his second-career walk-off homer earlier this month (Sept. 3) against the Tigers. His first walk-off came on July 30, 2017, against the Indians.

Notes

• The White Sox need to win six of their last 16 games to avoid losing 100 games for the fourth time in franchise history.

• Jose Abreu is just three homers away from becoming the ninth player in Major League history to hit at least 25 homers in each of his first five seasons. Abreu heads into this series with 22 homers and 78 RBIs, along with a .270 average.

• The White Sox are 0-7-2 in their last nine series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Chicago last won a series in Baltimore in 2008.

White Sox hold off Orioles 8-6, give James Shields his 1st road win since opening day By Todd Kaporvich / Chicago Tribune / September 14, 2018

James Shields has dealt with some tough luck this season.

On a soggy Friday night, the nicknamed “Big Game James” turned in a solid start for the White Sox and was rewarded with some run support.

Shields picked up his first road victory since opening day in an 8-6 win over the Orioles.

“This year’s been kind of a struggle getting the (wins),” said Shields, who has gone at least six innings in 22 of his last 27 starts. “I’ve thrown a lot of quality starts this year and unfortunately it just hasn’t gone my way. The guys are grinding for me. There’s no doubt about that. I know that every guy in this clubhouse wants to score a bunch of runs for me.”

Ryan Cordell earned his first career hit over 15 at-bats with an eighth-inning homer that provided an insurance run. Omar Narvaez and Avisail Garcia also homered for the Sox, who won for the second time in nine games.

“I was probably pressing to get that first one,” Cordell said. “It took quite a few ABs.”

Shields (7-16), who leads the majors in losses, allowed two runs on four hits with five and one walk over six innings. Shields had gone winless in his 12 previous road appearances.

Left-hander Aaron Bummer relieved Shields in the seventh and loaded the bases. Ian Hamilton entered with one out and allowed a two-run single to pinch-hitter Corban Joseph that pulled Baltimore within 7-4. A fielding error by second baseman Yoan Moncada allowed another run to score before Adam Jones hit a sacrifice fly.

Jace Fry contained the Orioles with a scoreless eighth, setting up Nate Jones to pick up his fifth save and first since May 22 in his second appearance since coming off the disabled list.

Luis Ortiz (0-1), obtained in the trade that sent Jonathan Schoop to the Brewers on July 31, made his first major-league start and threw 1 2/3 innings before leaving with a hamstring injury. He allowed three runs, one earned, and four hits with a walk.

“I wish he could have stayed out there and continued to pitch,” Orioles manager said. “He’s got late life and a good, sharp . He’s got a chance to be pretty good.”

Trey Mancini hit a pair of homers and has 23 on the season for the majors-worst Orioles, who lost their 105th game.

“We all want to go out every day and do well for the team first, and then on a personal level you want to go out and get results that you worked hard for,” Mancini said. “We got 15 games left, and hopefully we can keep putting good at-bats together.”

The Sox got on the board in the first on a two-out RBI single by Daniel Palka.

A triple by Nicky Delmonico and an infield single by Moncada increased the lead to 3-0, and Ortiz left a batter later. Moncada finished with three hits.

Mancini hit a solo shot in the second off Shields, who has allowed 31 homers, second in the majors behind the Orioles' Dylan Bundy.

Narvaez answered in third with a two-run shot off Jimmy Yacabonis. Mancini hit another solo homer in the fourth that pulled the Orioles within 5-2.

Yacabonis allowed a two-run shot to Garcia in the fifth and exited two batters later.

White Sox belt three home runs, defeat Orioles 8-6 By Daryl Van Schouwen / Sun-Times / September 14, 2018

BALTIMORE — The White Sox need to win five of their last 15 games to avoid their fourth 100-loss season in franchise history, and having the Orioles to play this weekend isn’t hurting the cause.

With six games left against the division-leading Indians and three against the Cubs, it’s time to make some hay while the getting is good.

And make hay the Sox did on a misty Friday night at Camden Yards, defeating the lowly Orioles 8-6 behind six innings of two-run ball from James Shields; a three-hit night from Yoan Moncada; home runs from Omar Narvaez, Avisail Garcia and rookie Ryan Cordell; and an RBI triple off the center-field wall from Nicky Delmonico. The Orioles are 42-105 after their latest loss.

Fresh off a 4-2 win in Kansas City on Wednesday and a day off Thursday, the Sox (58-89) came to Baltimore a relaxed and somewhat rested bunch, but with only two weeks to go and nothing but pride to play for, they were still focused on trying to win a baseball game. and hitters gathered for their usual meetings before the first game of a series. Cordell, in search of his first major-league hit, broke down video of Orioles starter . Helping him was center fielder Adam Engel, who sat out in favor of Cordell, who would connect on a 419-footer against Orioles lefty Tanner Scott.

Daniel Palka, getting set to do an interview with MLB.com’s “Chatting Cage” but realizing it was meeting time, dropped it like a hot potato and went back for it after the meeting.

“We’re going to finish strong,” Shields said. “We’re going to play all the way to the end. We have a good group of guys in this clubhouse who work really hard between games, and they want to get better every day.”

Palka singled twice and drove in the first run of the game, scoring Moncada, who led off with a ground-rule double, his 25th. Cordell’s homer was a welcome blast, and not just because it took him 16 at-bats to get his first hit. The Orioles had cut the lead to one by scoring four runs against lefty Aaron Bummer and righty Ian Hamilton in a seventh inning in which Moncada committed his team-high 19th error on a potential double-play grounder. It was a noticeable blemish on an otherwise good night for Moncada, who made a difficult catch reaching over the side wall to catch a foul ball.

“Definitely after that tough bottom half of the seventh inning, to get a little momentum back, it was pretty big,” Cordell said. “I was pressing quite a bit — it took quite a few ABs, but I’m glad it’s out of the way.”

The beer shower for his first hit “was really cold,” Cordell said. “But it was a good cold.”

The home run ball, scooped up by a fan who received a bat and signed ball in exchange for it, will probably go to Cordell’s parents, he said.

The Sox struck out 10 times, raising their total to a major-league high 1,422 strikeouts, and it’s Moncada who’s most responsible with a major-league-leading 196 whiffs, the second-most in franchise history. But Moncada did not strike out Friday and somewhat quietly is putting together a respectable push to the finish line by reaching base in 21 of his last 22 games and batting .288 during that stretch.

Shields (7-16), unspectacular but serviceable and reliable in making every one of his starts at age 36, lowered his ERA a smidge to 4.53 and won on the road for the first time since Opening Day. Trey Mancini homered twice to account for the damage against him.

Nate Jones, in his second appearance since coming back from a pronator injury, pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save since May 22. He has five saves this season.

White Sox rookie Jose Rondon introducing power to versatile profile By Daryl Van Schouwen / Sun-Times / September 14, 2018

BALTIMORE — Utility infielder Jose Rondon is commanding attention as a potential keeper for the White Sox because of his pleasantly surprising power surge. Rondon, 24, clubbed his fifth homer in 85 plate appearances Wednesday in the Sox’ 4-2 win in 10 innings in Kansas City — some nice pop for a player who’s also looking to expand his versatility in the field.

An average-to-above-average defender, according to manager Rick Renteria, Rondon can play shortstop, second base and third base, and he’s going to play the outfield for Leones del Caracas in Venezuela this winter.

“I’m a little bit surprised by the power, but not that much, because I worked for that in the offseason,” Rondon said Friday through an interpreter. “I was on a program to build up strength and get my body in a better place to hit the ball harder. And the results have been there.”

Rondon, on the bench with a .256/.318/.513 hitting line Friday at the start of the Sox’ game against the Orioles, had 18 homers, 15 doubles and four triples in 80 games for Class AAA Charlotte this season. Traded from the Padres for cash considerations in January, he had 17 homers total in seven minor-league seasons before this year.

“The swing he has is pretty simple,” Renteria said. “He’s pretty aggressive in the zone. He barrels it, he has good leverage and stays underneath himself very well, so I’m not surprised he can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Good for us he can do that.”

Rondon said he feels confident about bringing good defense and quality at-bats to the park every day.

“They’ve given me a chance to show what I can do,” he said. “I also think I haven’t shown as much as I can because I haven’t had a complete chance.”

Said Renteria: “He’s a utility-type player for us right now. Gives us good at-bats, can play multiple positions. He has shown us he can sit for a day or two or three and be used and give you a nice outing.”

Covey stays in rotation

Renteria said right-hander Dylan Covey (5-13, 5.64 ERA), who gave up five earned runs in 4⅓ innings against the Royals on Tuesday as the replacement for Michael Kopech in the rotation, will keep a turn in Cleveland.

“He didn’t do a bad job last time,” Renteria said.

Covey’s turn would be Tuesday, but days off would allow Carlos Rodon to be moved ahead of Covey to Tuesday, allowing Rodon to start against the Cubs next Sunday in the finale of their three-game series at .

This and that

Matt Davidson, who missed the Royals series with a sore left calf, was available but out of the lineup against the Orioles with left-handed-hitting Daniel Palka at designated hitter.

• Advanced Rookie Great Falls went 4-0 in the postseason, claiming its first Pioneer League championship since 2011.

How a change in arsenal sparked a breakout year for White Sox prospect Blake Battenfield By James Fegan / The Athletic / September 14, 2018

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Blake Battenfield’s first professional start came as a result of a small crisis this April. The Kannapolis Intimidators’ scheduled fifth starter, Kyle Von Ruden, abruptly retired in the first week of the season, and in response, the White Sox turned to last year’s 17th-round pick, a four-year college pitcher who often sat in the high-80s and had 31 1/3 uneven innings out of the bullpen at Rookie League Great Falls to his name.

By the end of May, Battenfield was the White Sox minor league pitcher of the month. Two weeks after that, he was promoted to High-A Winston-Salem. After a rough July, Battenfield allowed three runs in 13 innings over a couple Dash wins in August before he was sidelined with shoulder inflammation. As someone who never was a starter for a full season even at Oklahoma State, Battenfield’s 121 innings in 2018 blew away his previous career high by a mile, so the Sox did not rush him to return before the end of what was still a landmark season.

“Seeing him from right now from what I’m seeing is maybe a No. 5 starter or a long relief guy in the big leagues,” Dash pitching coach Matt Zaleski said. “I know he doesn’t have the top 90-95 mph starting velocity but he’s 87-91, 92 mph at times and gets a lot of swings and misses, which you don’t see a ton from guys who throw 87-92 mph.”

If fifth starter seems like a humble projection, contrast it with what the projection would be for the average 17th-rounder, especially one that struggles out of the bullpen for Great Falls in their pro debut, and how many of them get mentioned as having a shot at the majors at all. The change in fortune is rooted in an overhaul of Battenfield’s arsenal from the sinker/slider attack he used in college to a four-pitch mix staked on high four-seam with carry, and the need for some kind of change was apparent quickly.

“I was kind of still doing what I was doing in college where I do a sinker-slider up top mix, I would switch between two arm slots,” Battenfield said. “I was having a tough time throwing strikes and when I was throwing strikes, it wasn’t in parts of the zone that were beneficial to me. I was throwing a bunch of balls middle and I think I gave up five earned in two-thirds of an inning, or something crazy. I thought to myself, I didn’t like doing this in college, why would I continue to do this?”

With the pitch and spin rate data from the White Sox, Battenfield confirmed what he already partly suspected when his games were still getting called for him from the dugout: his four-seam fastball had good life and carry, and he would be well- advised to work it up in the zone and play off of it with a slate of off-speed pitches that he could drop below the zone. Zaleski quipped that Battenfield “could roll out of bed” and throw his slider after all his reps in college, but he had to be taught his from scratch, and is still working on his , though it’s gotten easier now that he’s not trying to pair it with a sinker.

“The ball tells you a lot,” Battenfield said more than once. “I changed the grip of my slider and it got a little firmer and I was able to command it a little better. The adjustment period wasn’t very long because I had previous knowledge of throwing the four-seam/curveball mix. Still, the biggest adjustment for me was my changeup. When it’s on it’s really good but there are times when I have a tough time finding it. With three pitches, I’ve got my checkdowns I can get to pretty much whenever I want. It’s the changeup I have a tough time getting to.”

After dominating Low-A in the first half of the season with a 2.00 ERA and 69 strikeouts over just 67 2/3 innings, Battenfield saw his strikeouts dip a bit and his mistakes sting more against the more toolsy and more disciplined hitters in the . He finished with a 4.22 ERA in 53 1/3 innings at Winston-Salem with 46 strikeouts over 13 walks, allowing 10 home runs.

Battenfield turned 24 at the end of August, and even after a breakout season, like Joel Booker, he’ll be behind the eight ball as he tries to maintain his rapid rise, show he can continue to refine his stuff and make it work against more advanced hitters. Especially considering he doesn’t necessarily view himself as someone whose performance would jump out of a bullpen role.

“From the aspect of whether I’m better as a starter or reliever, I don’t think any of my pitches are necessarily electric or anything,” Battenfield said. “Now when they’re all working in combination with each other they can become plus pitches, but if I were to eliminate a couple pitches and I was only a two-pitch guy it would be a little bit harder for me to pitch at a high level. With all four of my pitches together, it makes me more effective.”

For an organization long believed to be, and even derided as being old school, Battenfield is a success story built from throwing aside the assumptions that a guy who can’t hit mid-90s should throw sinkers instead, and going with what the data indicates is a good idea. By doing so, the White Sox have come out of 2018 with a legit prospect where there previously might not have been one.

But there’s something for old-school types to enjoy about Battenfield’s rise, too. Given the first thing a casual viewer would notice from watching him wouldn’t be the four-seamers mixed with , or his well-honed slider or the developing changeup, but the lack of time between one pitch and the next. As someone who played in the field as a position player for a bit, there was nothing Battenfield hated more than a slow-working pitcher, but he found a mechanical benefit of working fast, as well.

“If I leave a ball high and arm side because I leaked out forward, it’s a lot easier for me to make that adjustment if I get the ball back and go because I know what I did,” Battenfield said. “It’s kind of like in golf. I don’t golf much. But I’ve heard a lot of guys use this analogy: driving range guys would improve their swing and hit balls straight constantly. But when they get on the fairway after driving from the tee box, they’ve hit the ball straight but in the time they’ve walked to the next ball they’ve lost their swing. It’s a lot easier to repeat when you’re doing it over and over again as opposed to that long period of time between swings and pitches.”

Battenfield watched seemingly every baseball highlight “SportsCenter” put on growing up, so he admired Pedro Martinez and he loved Dontrelle Willis’ delivery and his high leg kick, but the truth is he watched every pitcher he could. And he’s been in the White Sox organization more than long enough to know what everyone is thinking when they hear about an under-the-radar prospect who throws four pitches for strikes, doesn’t throw too hard and works fast.

“Buehrle,” Battenfield answered quickly. “Buehrle was a fun guy to watch. Threw a . He’s really highly regarded in White Sox history and that’s an awesome comparison. I’d like to have half the career had.”

Ken Rosenthal and spun perfect yarns at our Chicago subscriber event By Jon Greenberg / The Athletic / September 14, 2018

No offense to Nisei Lounge, Southport Lanes or my pizza mecca, Piece, but we stepped it up a little with the venue for our latest subscriber event.

Tied House (3157 N. Southport Ave.) is probably a bit too fancy for the staff of The Athletic, but it was a perfect spot for 125 of our closest friends to listen to The Athletic writers and journalistic legends and Peter Gammons share wisdom and stories from their celebrated careers as baseball journalists Thursday night.

After everyone snacked on hors d’oeuvres and ordered Schlitz beers in fancy glasses, we warmed up the crowd with two staff panels.

Lauren Comitor moderated a Bears panel with Dan Durkin and Kevin Fishbain and the audience delighted in the recounting of how Durkin’s tweet this week showing a wide-open Trey Burton in the end zone Sunday became a national story.

Then Lauren sat with our baseball writers Patrick Mooney, Sahadev Sharma and James Fegan to discuss eventful seasons for both teams in town. While the room had a large TV, it wasn’t on and in a surprise to me, not every person in the room was checking Twitter as feverishly as us reporters do. So when Sahadev mentioned that Pedro Strop had just injured his hamstring running out a ground ball in Washington D.C., several people in the audience gasped. That Sahadev, always breaking news. Meanwhile, James cracked up the audience several times. When you’re covering a rebuilding White Sox team, laughter is about all you can ask for.

I was a little nervous before the main event. I was worried about time, the validity of my questions and whether or not I ate enough of the Tied House’s delightful bread appetizers before going up to moderate Ken and Peter.

Needless to say, if anything, my questions were an impediment to their stories. While Gammons joked he’s at the emeritus stage of his career, I’d probably refer to him as baseball’s poet laureate.

The crowd age was varied, with many subscribers certainly old enough to remember Gammons’ days at , if not the Globe. As a 30-something, I was introduced to Peter in his salad days at ESPN. As you might recall, he was . He spokes of his experience there with great fondness, though we all gleefully ripped ESPN for letting go of , which allowed Stark to work with us. Rosenthal, who was part of a website purge at , noted he took a job with The Athletic as almost a rebuke to anyone who thinks the written word wasn’t important anymore.

(I also noted that if ESPN hadn’t laid off Scott Powers and myself at the end of 2015, we wouldn’t have started The Athletic Chicago.)

During the hour-plus we had together, I wanted to remind people of Gammons’ writing ability, so I read the lede of his famous 1975 Game 6 story. The story was written, I believe he said, in about 25 minutes after the game. The great ones always are.

“And all of a sudden the ball was there, like the Mystic River Bridge, suspended out in the black of the morning.”

I asked him how he came up with that lede and he responded with great details, but as Ken said, the truth is very few can write like Peter can write, no matter how long they have to do it.

Seriously, check out this Red Sox column he wrote this month.

Ken told me several times that he didn’t really need to talk at all, because he’d rather listen to Peter tell stories all night. And it’s not because they’re new to him. Ken has heard Peter’s stories so often, he prompted him to tell one about Chase Utley that involved getting hit with a baseball. Peter obliged, but as it turned out, he told a different one than Ken was anticipating. (Both are hilarious.)

While we all enjoyed Peter’s tales, since Ken flew to Chicago, I felt obliged to turn to my left and pick his brain as well. I even brought up the time Orioles owner Peter Angelos wrote a two-page press release bashing Ken, calling him an “insolent twit whose journalistic fulminations vilify and randomly splatter written bile.” Ken’s recounting of that 1994 incident, written about by the Washington Post here, had the audience cracking up. He also told the story, at my prompting, of the time White Sox executive Kenny Williams used the phrase “snitches and bitches” to describe Rosenthal’s anonymous source collection. Another classic.

Because Peter knows so well, I asked him what he thinks Theo will do when his current Cubs contract is up in a few years. Politics is a popular but wrong answer. Theo doesn’t want to run for anything, though I could see him getting involved with fundraising for liberal causes in the future. To answer my question, Gammons created a plausible scenario around Theo putting together a group to buy the Red Sox. Something to keep our eyes on, I suppose.

The audience questions were well-balanced between current baseball minutiae and trips down memory lane, capping off a perfect evening of conversation. If you missed it, you weren’t alone. After we sent out email invitations to our subscribers, it sold out in 48 hours. So, stay tuned for more events coming soon.