HOUSTON — Chicago White Sox pitcher Sean Burke sat next to designated hitter Andrew Benintendi during the flight to Houston for the American League wild-card series.
“Talked about playoffs, his past experiences, some stuff that we need to do,” Burke said Tuesday afternoon at Daikin Park. “His advice was keep doing what we’ve been doing the whole year.”
That’s the approach the Sox took into the postseason. Several players are experiencing the playoffs for the first time. That includes Burke, who is in line to pitch in some role in Game 2 against the Houston Astros on Wednesday.
“I don’t think anything needs to change,” Burke said. “We got here for a reason and we know we have a good team. We have a talented group. Focusing on playing our brand of baseball is going to be good enough for us.”
Benintendi was the only Sox player in Tuesday’s starting lineup with major-league playoff experience. He played in the postseason in 2016-18 with the Boston Red Sox. The 2018 team won the World Series.
“It’s always nice to make the playoffs,” Benintendi said Sunday. “I haven’t played in any since 2018. I was with the Yankees but I was hurt during their run in ’22.
“It’s exciting. It’s always fun. At the least, it’s an experience for everyone in here to dip their toes in it.”
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Benintendi is one of the players shortstop Colson Montgomery leaned on.
“If you look at our lineup, it consists of a lot of rookies and guys who this is our first full year,” Montgomery said before Tuesday’s game. “But also we have a lot of veterans that have been in this scenario. (Outfielders Tommy Pham, Benintendi and Randal Grichuk), those guys have definitely been the people we’ve leaned on.
“They’re telling us, try to make it seem like it’s another game. Go about your routines the exact same because once the game starts, it’s the same thing we’ve been playing 162 games. It can be more magnified. You can make it feel that way, but they have been telling us (to) take it day by day and just be you.”
Montgomery said it was important not to overanalyze the situation.
“When you’re young and hungry and competitive and you’re in a scenario like this, you go out there and play,” he said. “You don’t overanalyze a lot of things. You do what you know, and that’s play baseball. We’ve all been playing baseball for our whole lives, so in our eyes this is something that’s not anything different.
“But we’re all excited. All the young guys, we’re all pumped to be here.”
While the team did receive a special letter from Pope Leo XIV, manager Will Venable didn’t feel a special speech was necessary.
“These guys have a full understanding of what this is, even if they haven’t been here before,” Venable said Tuesday. “We’ve talked about some of the environments and situations that we played in, especially in the second half of this year, going to Wrigley, going to Yankee Stadium and playing in those high-leverage moments and experiencing that.
“Of course, there’s nothing like the playoffs and that’s going to be a different beast all in itself and they will have to experience that for themselves. There’s nothing that I can say that can help them feel what it’s going to feel like.”