Thursday, July 10

CHICAGO -- So, Grant Taylor isn’t perfect.

Not exactly a man bites dog sort of surprise.

Yes, he has a four-seam fastball frequently topping 100 mph. He was at 99 mph or above, according to Statcast, on 17 of 18 four-seamers during a two-inning save against the Giants last Saturday.

The right-hander can pitch, as well as throw, and has a mound presence well beyond his 58 1/3 innings at the professional level. But on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, Taylor couldn’t hold a two-run ninth-inning lead over the defending World Series champions.

Those struggles, which involved two walks and nine straight pitches out of the zone in his second of two relief innings, produced three Dodgers runs and Taylor’s first loss. Those struggles also will make Taylor a better pitcher in the short term and the long run.

“Oh, yeah, for sure. Every pitch, every outing, there’s something to learn from, something to get better,” said Taylor, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 6 White Sox prospect. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot of things I can learn from [Wednesday].

“I would be naïve to think I would come up here and never fail. All the greats fail. [Clayton] Kershaw just got his 3,000th [strikeout] and he’s had plenty of outings where he didn’t do too hot. He’s had plenty of outings where he was the best pitcher alive. Just learn from it.”

Taylor bounced back nicely on Friday at Coors Field, earning his third save with a scoreless ninth in which he allowed a hit and struck out two. He threw seven of his 10 four-seamers at 99 mph or above and finished the game by getting Ryan McMahon swinging on an 85.2 mph curveball.

On Wednesday vs. the Dodgers, Taylor had cruised through his first inning of relief in 12 pitches, of which 10 were strikes. He struck out Andy Pages and Kiké Hernández in the process.

Michael Conforto opened that ninth with a single, followed by the unusual bout of wildness with walks issued to Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim. Taylor has walked three against 14 strikeouts in 12 1/3 big league innings, with two coming in Wednesday's setback.

“Yeah, two walks in the ninth, that can’t happen. You have to execute,” Taylor said. “It felt like I was still calm. I felt like I was still in my plan. I got a little bit too fine. Try to make pitches a little bit too dotted. Too on the black.

“A lot of times with my stuff, I can just aim toward the middle and if I miss, it’s probably in a good location. So, obviously not what you want. Opportunity to learn. I was kind of rushing a little bit, which has happened before.”

Even amid this off night, the 23-year-old showed his mettle. With the bases loaded, nobody out and Shohei Ohtani at the plate, Taylor induced what appeared to be a double-play grounder to second on a 1-1 pitch.

“Unfortunately, that dude is quick. 10 times out of 10 I get that ground ball and think it’s a double play,” Taylor said. “He’s just an unbelievable player, able to beat that out by a step and a half. That was surprising.

“Honestly, it felt pretty calm. That could have been a very easy situation to spiral and get ahead of myself and have the game kind of speed up. But for all things considered, I was pretty calm. Just trying to flush what happened before that and focus on the pitch and just power through the middle.”

Social-media debate quickly took off as to whether Taylor should have been left in to face Mookie Betts with runners on first and third and protecting a one-run lead. But manager Will Venable felt it was the right time to go to Steven Wilson.

“We put him in a tough spot and asked a lot of him, and that’s on me,” Venable said. “My job is to put these guys in the best position possible. We’ve seen him handle it before, some other stuff.

“He had to get loose earlier in the game, and that might have impacted him. In any case, just putting him in a tough spot to get six outs against this lineup to end the game at Dodger Stadium is a big ask.”

Big asks will be made of Taylor again soon -- for now as a reliever, and quite possibly as the team’s closer. He’ll be ready for the challenge as always, regardless of the most recent result.

During my Reporter Mailbag that ran earlier this week, I mentioned the possibility of Colson Montgomery being called up to the White Sox for the final homestand of the first half beginning Monday against the Blue Jays. My prediction was one series off, as the talented shortstop began his big league career Friday against the Rockies in Denver, hitting seventh and making a spectacular catch before friends and family.

Past slumps don’t matter, aside from it being beneficial for Montgomery to deal with rough times before he gets to the highest level. Nor do the lofty expectations, when Montgomery was as high as No. 9 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 going into the 2024 season.

The answers are all on the field, and I believe Montgomery will take off with the White Sox. He probably won’t be American League Rookie of the Year, as I projected before the 2025 season, but he’s a talented individual who can manage the spotlight.

• I was upgraded to a flagship suite when flying from Chicago to Los Angeles on Tuesday. Not only is that my preferred choice of travel moving forward, but I might just live there during the offseason.

• There was a young fan who celebrated his 11th birthday at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday and earned a pregame chance to throw out a first pitch to Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Yamamoto’s bobblehead night. He then watched Kershaw pick up his 3,000th career strikeout and the Dodgers’ victory rally in the ninth among 53,536 fans. Good luck to his family trying to plan birthday No. 12.

• It was great to see Daryl Van Schouwen in the pressbox last Saturday, and it’s great to see he’s enjoying retirement. It was equally enjoyable to work with Doug Padilla during the Dodgers series. Former White Sox beat writers are all over the country.

•  Tia Carrere performed a rousing rendition of the national anthem on Tuesday and all I can say is it was “excellent.” If you didn’t see "Wayne’s World," you won’t understand.

“It’s part of a Major League season for an everyday player. You’re going to go through those stretches. The one thing about Miguel is he continues to come to the ballpark with energy and a good attitude every day.” -- Venable on Miguel Vargas, who exited Los Angeles in a 1-for-33 slump before recording two hits in Friday's series opener vs. the Rockies

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