bryan hudson will open Game 2 for the White Sox on Tuesday, a move that shows how tight the pitching plan has become in the City Series. The White Sox are trying to get through the rest of the Cubs series with limited bullpen availability after a 7-5 loss in 10 innings on Monday at Wrigley Field.
Will Venable said, “It’ll be day by day here,” and added, “We’re going to figure out where we’re at after today. We have some availability limitations in our bullpen that can impact some things.” That is the practical backdrop for Hudson’s assignment: the White Sox need to cover innings without burning the same arms again before the series is done.
Will Venable and Bryan Hudson
“That’s generally the way you go about it,” Venable said about the day-to-day approach. He also made the larger plan plain: “Obviously, we have to be mindful of what it means for the future. But the priority is to win the game today. So that’s the approach and why we’re not going to be making decisions on our starters for the rest of this series.”
That sounds cautious, but Tuesday already has a decision attached to it. Hudson is the opener, and the White Sox have moved from managing the series in theory to assigning a specific arm in practice. In a short series, that usually tells you the staff is protecting innings rather than chasing a full-length start.
Wrigley Field and the bullpen
The workload is the issue. The White Sox used a bullpen game Friday and then got 5 ⅓ innings from Anthony Kay on Saturday and 4 ⅓ from Sean Burke on Sunday during a three-game sweep of the Tigers. They also got 3 ⅔ innings from Jose Urquidy in that bullpen game, while Erick Fedde did not throw against the Tigers after moving to the bullpen.
Monday’s loss made the math even tighter. Luis Castillo worked 4 ⅔ innings and allowed four runs, three earned, in the series opener against the Cubs, so the staff’s next turn has to account for that usage without pretending the last few days did not happen. Venable said, “We really are day to day here with this, just because of the usage we have had over this last series. So we’ll reserve our plan for after the game.”
Kyle Teel and the reset
Kyle Teel added a quieter but relevant note at Wrigley Field on Monday. The injured catcher took batting practice while working back from a sprained left ankle he suffered on July 20 against the Rangers, and Venable said, “We still don’t have a definite timeline.” He also said, “We have to see how he’s feeling and how he recovers after the hitting. The most important thing is going to be the running and how he responds to that.”
For now, the White Sox are choosing the least expensive way to survive the middle of the series. Hudson opens Tuesday, Fedde may work as a bulk reliever afterward or start Game 3 on Wednesday, and the club will keep treating each game as its own calculation until the bullpen gets a breather after Aug. 27.
