CLEVELAND — The Chicago White Sox utilized Anthony Kay for 1 1/3 relief innings in Game 1 of the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday at Progressive Field.
The left-hander will be back in a familiar role for Game 2 on Monday.
“We’re going to start with Anthony Kay up front here and then figure it out as we go,” manager Will Venable said Sunday. “Obviously we’ll have Sean (Burke) in a role at some point behind Anthony. Got a number of other guys that will be available as well.”
Kay allowed one hit and walked one in his scoreless outing during Saturday’s 3-0 victory. It was his second appearance this postseason, getting two crucial outs in the fifth inning of the 7-3 victory against the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the wild-card series Wednesday. He was credited with the win.
“It’s been interesting watching him in a different type of role, shorten down,” Venable said of Kay, who started 31 of his 33 outings in the regular season. “You’ve seen the velo tick up. The one thing is he just hasn’t been afforded that length to get comfortable. He’s made some really big pitches, got us out of some really tough spots, we just haven’t really seen us go beyond that.
“It’s been really short stints here, but he’s really responded well to a new role coming out of the pen.”
The Sox and Guardians held workouts Sunday ahead of Game 2, which begins at 4 p.m. Monday.
Here are three takeaways from Progressive Field.
1. Burke is prepared for the next test.
Burke isn’t sure which inning he’ll enter. But the right-hander said Sunday, “Whenever my name gets called to pitch, I’ll be ready to go.”
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Burke started Game 2 of the wild-card series, allowing three runs — all solo home runs — on four hits with five strikeouts and no walks over four innings.
“Overall I felt like I threw the ball well,” Burke said. “It’s kind of one of the best, just in terms of how my stuff felt and delivery and everything, and just the crispness of how all the pitches felt, it was good. I think just threw mistakes and hit three homers on it. That’s playoff baseball. Those mistakes get punished a little bit more.
“But overall, I felt good.”
He said of the postseason environment: “This is why you play the game. This is why you grind all season to get to those moments. I think everybody on our teams loves playing in these big moments, loves playing in these environments.”
Burke went 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA and 21 strikeouts over 17 1/3 innings during three outings (two starts) against the Guardians in the regular season.
2. Sox aim for Tristan Peters-type mentality against Gavin Williams.
Peters had an epic 18-pitch plate appearance on Sept. 14 against Guardians starter Williams, drawing a walk. The battle featured 12 foul balls.
“He was just fouling off good pitches,” Williams said Sunday. “And then he took some good ones as well, but nothing I would change in that at-bat.”
Williams is in line to start Monday. The Sox want to have that Peters’ mindset throughout the lineup.
“That’s a great example to point to as far as what our mentality will be in,” Venable said. “Where you’re going to have to cover a number of different pitches, you’re going to have to foul some pitches off. You’re going to have to find a way to put some balls in play and make it tough on him to get through our lineup, which he’s really good at doing.
“We’ll hopefully have a couple more Tristan Peters at-bats like he did last time.”
3. The Sox are mindful of the workload for Hagen Smith and Grant Taylor.
After extended appearances in Game 1, it remains to be seen what roles Smith and Taylor might have in Game 2. Smith went 2 2/3 innings as the opener. Taylor pitched the final four innings, striking out six while earning the save.
“Obviously there’s a lot to like with these guys, and we want to use them to win games, but we want to be responsible also,” Venable said. “We don’t want injuries. Like if Grant is going to pitch four innings every game, I think we will like kill him, right? He will not survive all that exposure, as much as we want him to be in the game. And he probably would tell you that he could pitch four innings (Monday). He is a guy that really wants to be in there. Hagen is the same way.
“So we are taking it game by game. Obviously there was a big ask there in Game 1 from both of those guys, but knowing that we have these off days, we’re comfortable with the idea of using them how we used them in Game 1, giving them the off day and being responsible about how we use them in Game 2.”
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