Rikuu Nishida debuts; White Sox beat Twins

Before the start of a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins, the White Sox on Monday promoted all-purpose player Rikuu Nishida from Triple-A Charlotte.

Nishida, 25, who was born in Japan and played college baseball at the University of Oregon, was selected by the Sox in the 11th round of the 2023 MLB draft.  

He began this season at Double-A Birmingham and quickly earned a promotion to Charlotte, where he was batting .347/.454/.395 with a home run, 10 RBIs and nine stolen bases in 33 games.

It was an eventful MLB debut for Nishida on Monday, as he batted ninth and played right field for the Sox in their 3-1 victory over the Twins.

He collected his first major league hit, going 1 for 3 with a single, and recorded seven putouts in the outfield. Perhaps most impressively, he provided the best defensive play of the game. Nishida threw Orlando Arcia out at the plate to end the top of the second inning, after Minnesota's Alex Jackson had singled to right field.

The play kept the score tied at 1 at the time and got Sox starter Anthony Kay (4-1) out of the only jam he was in all afternoon.

Speaking of Kay, has anyone noticed that he's been the second-best starter on the Sox lately? The left-hander is now 3-0 with a 1.98 ERA across five May starts after he tossed six innings of one-run ball against the Twins.

Brooks Lee homered in the first inning for Minnesota, but that was the only run the Twins could manage all day.

Meanwhile, the Sox hit two home runs in the first two innings off Minnesota starter Zebby Matthews (1-2), and that was the difference in the game.

Munetaka Murakami hit his team-leading 18th home run of the season in the first inning -- a solo shot that tied the game at 1. In the second inning, Tristan Peters worked a leadoff walk and scored when Drew Romo hit his fifth homer of the year. The two-run blast put the Sox ahead 3-1 and capped the scoring for the day early.

The Sox got scoreless innings of relief from Grant Taylor, Bryan Hudson and Seranthony Dominguez, with Dominguez earning his 11th save of the season.

The Sox are 27-26, 3.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. 

Edgar Quero walks off Cubs; Sox complete 7-2 homestand

Rate Field on May 13. (Photo by Jason Bauman)

Struggling White Sox catcher Edgar Quero picked the ideal time for his first home run of the season.

Quero, who entered Sunday's game against the crosstown Cubs batting .151 with a .163 slugging percentage, picked on the first pitch he saw from Ryan Rolison in the bottom of the 10th inning and smacked it over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer to give the Sox a 9-8 victory over the hated and despised North Siders.

The Sox took two out of three over the weekend at Rate Field, picking up their first series victory over the Cubs since 2022. 

It was hard-earned.

Sox starter Erick Fedde didn't have good stuff. He needed 84 pitches to get through the first three innings, and after allowing the first two Cubs batters to reach base in the top of the fourth, he was mercifully removed from the game.

Fedde's final line: three innings pitched, six hits, four runs (all earned), four walks, two strikeouts. Fortunately, the Sox only trailed 4-1 headed to the bottom of the fourth. With the traffic the Cubs had on the bases, it easily could have been 7-1.

Instead, the Sox remained within striking distance. They scored one in the fourth, and then tied the game at 4-4 in the fifth on a two-out, two-run double by Miguel Vargas.

Meanwhile, the Sox bullpen held the line. Sean Newcomb tossed two scoreless innings. Grant Taylor tossed two scoreless innings. Bryan Hudson pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out jam in the eighth to keep it at 4-4.

In the bottom of the eighth, Tristan Peters took his shot at being the unlikely hero. With two outs, he connected for his first MLB homer off Cubs reliever Phil Maton. It was a 3-run shot that gave the Sox a 7-4 lead going to the top of the ninth.

That should have been the decisive blow, but alas, Seranthony Dominguez has been an adventure as Sox closer. And he had another misadventure Sunday.

Alex Bregman walked to lead off the top of the ninth. After Ian Happ struck out, Seiya Suzuki reached on a two-base throwing error by Vargas that placed runners on second and third.

When a multi-run lead is blown, usually walks and errors are part of it. Dominguez fell behind in the count, 3-1, to Michael Conforto, and the Cubs outfielder blasted the next pitch out to center for a 3-run homer to tie the game at 7-7.

The Sox left two runners on base in the bottom of the inning, sending the game to extras. The Cubs got their ghost runner across against reliever Tyler Davis (2-1), with Bregman picking up the RBI on a slowly hit grounder to short.

But Davis did a good job of preventing further damage and gave the Sox a chance in the bottom of the inning.

After Andrew Benintendi's sacrifice bunt moved ghost runner Chase Meidroth over to third, the struggling Quero delivered perhaps the biggest hit of his career thus far, sending those dressed in black in the crowd into a frenzy.

The Sox are 24-22, one game back of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central. For the homestand, the South Siders went 7-2, winning two of three from the Seattle Mariners and sweeping the Kansas City Royals prior to the Cubs series.

I made it to Rate Field for the middle game of the Kansas City series, after a co-worker who is a Royals fan invited me to the game. I took the above photo in the bottom of the eighth inning that night, with Munetaka Murakami at the plate.

As you can see, the fans haven't really come back from these past three miserable seasons. Sure, all these games against the Cubs were sellouts, but all the losing and lousy Jerry Reinsdorf ownership has hit everybody hard.

But maybe more homestands like this will slowly rejuvenate interest in this team. There's a lot of baseball left to be played, and it's a long road back to relevance. But punking the Cubs is one way for the Sox to get a little more mention on the sports talk shows and in the national press. 

White Sox 'settle' for 2 out of 3 at San Diego

The San Diego Padres are 20-13 this season, so I can't complain about the White Sox taking two out of three at Petco Park over the weekend.

The results of this series are disappointing only in the sense that the Sox won the first two and had a legitimate chance to sweep on Sunday. Alas, the Padres scored late to salvage the final game, and the Sox saw their season-best five-game winning streak come to an end.

Here's a look back at what has to be considered a successful weekend for the Sox:

Friday, May 1

White Sox 8, Padres 2. Munetaka Murakami's 3-run homer capped a six-run second inning that put the Sox in full command of the series opener. It was the Japanese slugger's 13th home run of the season, and he concludes the weekend's action tied for the American League lead in that category with reigning league MVP Aaron Judge.

The run support helped rookie lefty Noah Schultz settle down. Schultz (2-1) walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the first and needed 29 pitches to get through the inning. But after being staked to a 6-0 lead, he only needed 58 pitches to get through the next five innings. When his outing was over, he had thrown six shutout innings, allowing just two hits. He did not walk another batter from the second inning on.

Colson Montgomery hit his ninth home run of the season for the Sox, and Sam Antonacci went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.

Saturday, May 2

White Sox 4, Padres 0. Sox right-hander Sean Burke matched zeroes with San Diego's Michael King until the South Siders finally broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth.

With runners on second and third and two outs, Miguel Vargas blooped a two-run single into shallow right field to give the Sox the only two runs they would need. The Sox added two more runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Edgar Quero and a safety squeeze by Tristan Peters.

Burke (2-2) was unscored upon for his second consecutive outing. He struck out eight over six innings, allowing four hits with only one walk.

San Diego loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Seranthony Dominguez entered the game in relief of Grant Taylor to get two outs and record his eighth save of the season. This is notable because no Sox pitcher recorded more than seven saves for the entirety of the 2025 campaign. 

Sunday, May 3

Padres 4, White Sox 3. With runners on second and third and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, San Diego shortstop Xander Bogaerts hit a check-swing roller up the third-base line for an infield single that plated the go-ahead run for the Padres.

The Sox got the tying run to second base in the top of the ninth when Peters singled and stole second, but San Diego closer Mason Miller fanned Luisangel Acuna on three pitches to earn his 11th save of the season. 

The Padres grabbed a 3-1 lead with three runs in the fourth off Sox starter Anthony Kay. Luis Andujar and Manny Machado each homered during the San Diego rally. The Sox answered in the seventh when Derek Hill hit his second homer of the season, a 2-run shot, to tie it at 3.

Alas, Sox reliever Tyler Davis (0-1) issued a leadoff walk in the bottom of the eighth, and that runner ended up scoring when Bryan Hudson gave up the infield single to Bogaerts.

Drew Romo also homered for the Sox, his third of the season. Kay pitched five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. He stuck out five and walked one. 

The Sox are 16-18. They had to Anaheim for a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels, starting Monday night. 

White Sox 'buy a prospect' from Red Sox

Over the weekend, the White Sox made a kind of trade I can't recall them ever making before. 

They took on a bad contract and added to their payroll for purposes of acquiring a pitching prospect they wanted.

Here's the trade they made with the Boston Red Sox:

Chicago gets: RHP Jordan Hicks, RHP David Sandlin, two players to be named later, $8 million

Boston gets: RHP Gage Ziehl, a player to be named later

The guy the Sox wanted here is Sandlin, who was the No. 8 prospect in the Boston organization. The 24-year-old ascended to Triple-A last season, finishing the year with a 9-6 record and 4.50 ERA. He made 14 starts before moving to the bullpen to accommodate a predetermined innings limit.

I've never seen Sandlin throw a pitch before, but apparently he's 6-foot-4, 215 pounds and can rush it up in the mid-90s. He's another guy who could be in the starting rotation mix by the midpoint of 2026, and we all know the Sox need pitching.

Why would Boston do this deal? Welp, the Red Sox wanted to get rid of Hicks, who has two years and $25 million remaining on a four-year, $44 million contract he signed before the 2024 season.

The Sox are on the hook for all but the $8 million they received in the trade. In effect, they "bought" Sandlin by taking on the majority of Hicks' contract.

Hicks was a decent reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2018-23, but after signing with San Francisco in 2024, he converted to starting. That experiment did not go well.

Last season, Hicks was traded from San Francisco to Boston midseason. He did not pitch well at either stop, going a combined 2-7 with a 6.95 ERA in 34 games. He made nine starts with the Giants, but all 21 of his games with the Red Sox were in relief.

According to comments given to Scott Merkin on whitesox.com, Hicks has been throwing in the high-90s in bullpen sessions this winter. Maybe there's still an effective relief pitcher in there somewhere.

The Sox do have some velocity in their bullpen now with Hicks joining Seranthony Dominguez, Grant Taylor and Jordan Leasure. That's not something we could have said at any point in 2025. We'll see who pitches in what role when the season starts. 

White Sox sign Seranthony Dominguez to 2-year contract

After the White Sox traded center fielder Luis Robert Jr., general manager Chris Getz said the $20 million the team was saving on Robert's contract would be spent elsewhere.

Well, half that money is accounted for. Relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez will be slated to make $10 million in 2026 as part of a two-year, $20 million contract he will sign with the Sox.

Dominguez, 31, split time in 2025 with the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. He appeared in a career-high 67 games and tossed a career-high 62.2 innings, totaling 79 strikeouts, 36 walks and a 3.16 ERA.

Those 79 strikeouts were also a career high for Dominguez, who throws 97 mph and should add some much-needed swing-and-miss stuff to the Sox bullpen. 

Of course, while his 30.3% strikeout rate last season is desirable, his 13.8% walk rate and league-leading 12 wild pitches temper enthusiasm a little bit.

Dominguez is tough on right-handed batters. He limited them to a .132/.269/.182 slash line last season. Left-handers were noticeably better at .277/.371/.446.

It stands to reason that Dominguez could thrive in a role where he faces primarily righties, but the Sox are planning to use him as a closer -- he has 40 saves in seven MLB seasons -- so how he handles lefties could determine his success or failure in a ninth inning role.

Is this the best way for Getz to spend the money he saved on the Robert deal?

Ehh. I've never been a big proponent of spending on relief pitchers when you have a holes in your lineup like Swiss cheese.

The Sox outfield was suspect even before Robert's departure. You figure highly paid veteran Andrew Benintendi is a lock for one roster spot, but the other outfield jobs will be up for grabs among Luisangel Acuna, Brooks Baldwin, Derek Hill, Everson Pereira, Tristan Peters and Jarred Kelenic.

That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, does it? Maybe the Sox should have spent on an outfielder. 

That said, the remaining outfield free agents wouldn't make me feel much better. Harrison Bader and Austin Hays are probably the top two left on the market, and neither moves the needle for me.

Given the track record of the Sox organization in recent years, we should probably be happy that Getz spent his savings on *something*. 

Dominguez is an upgrade over some other pitchers projected for the Sox bullpen, for sure.