Davidson, White Sox roll to 12-1 win over Royals
After another big night at the plate in Monday night's 12-1 win over the Kansas City Royals at Guaranteed Rate Field, Matt Davidson leads the Chicago White Sox with a .368 batting average, 4 home runs and a 1.164 OPS.
Davidson is tied with Avisail Garcia for the team lead with 14 RBI.
Before establishing a career high with 4 RBI in the lopsided victory over K.C. while matching his career best with 3 hits, Davidson was held out of the starting lineup in four straight games.
Everyone with a rooting interest in the White Sox seemed to be outraged, especially since the right-handed hitting Davidson appeared to be locked in a de facto platoon situation with the left-handed hitting Cody Asche (.057 batting average) at designated hitter.
Davidson, a laid-back Californian, stayed predictably cool.
"I'll tell you what, it feels a whole lot better being here than in (Class AAA) Charlotte, so I'm enjoying every single day," he said. "Obviously, I want to play, but being here with these guys and being in Chicago is a dream come true."
Davidson was a nightmare for Royals starter Jason Vargas and four relievers Monday. He gave the Sox a 1-0 lead in the second inning with a home run. In the sixth - when the White Sox sent 12 hitters to the plate - Davidson had an RBI double and a 2-run single.
"It's a lot of confidence," he said. "When you see those barrels and those line drives, that's what you want to see.
"But I'm trying to take all of the emotions out of my at-bats and not get too riled up or too relaxed. I'm trying to play kind of emotionless. I don't want to say that in a negative way, but I'm not really judging my at-bat if I swing at a bad pitch or if I don't see it very well.
"I'm not thinking in my head, 'Man, I didn't see that,' and getting lost in that but just staying with my approach. This is fun, but I also know it doesn't happen like this all the time. I'm just trying to take advantage of this opportunity and be better mentally every day."
Sox starter Miguel Gonzalez (3-0) didn't let down with all of the run support, allowing 1 run on 2 hits in 8 innings. The right-hander retired 16 of the final 17 hitters he faced.
"I give credit to (catcher Geovany) Soto," Gonzalez said. "I think the sinker was working good and the cutter/splitty, especially against this team, which is going to be aggressive."
Early work:
The Sox reported to work early Monday, running through defensive drills before taking regular batting practice.
"It's something new we're going to try," manager Rick Renteria said. "Other clubs have done this before. It's kind of a hybrid. Take all of their groundballs and take their flyballs without having balls flying off the bat during regular batting practice. It's not something you do every day. You might see it once or twice a homestand. We're going to test it out and see how it works."
Waiting game:
Zach Putnam came out of Friday's game against Cleveland with elbow discomfort.
The Sox's reliever had surgery last August to remove bone chips from the elbow and is hoping to avoid another injury.
"We've had a very preliminary sort of scans and stuff, like an X-ray, and there's nothing significant there," Putnam said. "There's no structural damage, so we're just going to give it a chance to calm down a little bit and hopefully be ready to go."