Palka's nightmarish season leaves future with White Sox in doubt
Daniel Palka is a classic left-handed pull hitter with immense power.
The style suited him well last season, when Palka came from out of nowhere and hit 27 home runs for the White Sox. That tied him with the Yankees' Miguel Andujar for most homers among American League rookies.
Claimed off waivers from the Twins after the 2017 season, Palka was an instant smash, and he looked like a long-term piece for the Sox.
Palka's future with the White Sox is currently in pieces.
Lefty power hitters routinely face a defensive infield shift, and Palka solved that problem by hitting over it last year.
But when he's made contact this season, Palka's been hitting ground balls to the right side of the infield and been an easy out. He's also struck out 23 times in 57 plate appearances and is having a nightmarish year.
"It's how you approach it," Sox manager Rick Renteria said of Palka. "It's what he's thinking about, probably wanting to do too much, trying to reassess and prove to everybody that he's what he was last year. I think you have to take a deep breath, take a step back and just be yourself, try to get pitches in the zone."
Palka wasn't in the lineup Friday night at Seattle.
Palka is in his third stint with the White Sox this season. The 6-foot-2, 220-pounder was optioned to Class AAA Charlotte on April 17 after going 1-for-35.
Showing he hadn't lost his sense of humor, Palka said: "Competitively speaking, I myself would have done it earlier."
Palka came back on June 28 but was demoted to Charlotte less than two weeks later after going 0-for-10.
Rejoining the Sox this month, Palka finally singled through shift Thursday against the Royals but he is batting .035 (2-for-57) for the season and has not hit a home run.
"I know he hasn't had the success that he's looking for," Renteria said. "Ultimately, bat-to-ball, when he gets it, he can get a pretty good swing on it, put a charge in it and hit it out of the ballpark. But you still have to make contact and I think it has more to do with approach than anything else."
White Sox 9, Mariners 7:
SEATTLE (AP) - Jose Abreu and Eloy Jimenez hit solo home runs, Yoan Moncada drove in four runs and the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 9-7 on Friday night.
The top half of Chicago's lineup dominated early in the game as the White Sox snapped a two-game losing streak. The Nos. 1 through 5 batters each reached base safely twice in the first four innings with Moncada getting three hits in that span.
Moncada's run-scoring triple and Adam Engel's solo home run put the White Sox up 5-3 and chased starter Yusei Kikuchi (6-10) with two outs in the third. Moncada then cleared the bases with a double for an 8-3 lead after reliever Wade LeBlanc loaded them on two hits and a walk to start the fourth inning.
Tim Anderson continued his run at the batting title as well. The shortstop was 2 for 5 in the game with a double and an RBI single, and improved his average to .334.
The Mariners have lost eight of their last 10.
Kikuchi gave up a solo home run to Abreu in the first. His teammates, however, took advantage of two walks and a wild pitch with one out from Dylan Covey to build a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the inning. But Kikuchi reached 60 pitches on Engel's third-inning home run and was done for the night.
Josh Osich (3-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings for the win. He struck out three and allowed three hits.
Shed Long's two-run single in the fourth and Daniel Vogelbach's two-run pinch-hit double in the eighth made it 8-7. But Jimenez padded the lead with his 27th homer in the ninth and Alex Colome pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for his sixth save.
The White Sox stopped rookie Kyle Lewis' run at the record books, holding him without a home run. Lewis was the second player in major league history to hit homers in each of his first three games. He did have a hit and an RBI, extending that streak into the fourth game of his career.