MLB Player News

The White Sox continue to employ a closer-by-committee approach in their bullpen. On Sunday, it was Grant Taylor working the seventh inning and Jordan Leasure handling the eighth — passing the baton to Vasil in the ninth. The 25-year-old right-hander made it look easy, getting Zach McKinstry on a bouncer to first, Jake Rogers on a called third strike and Parker Meadows on a ground out to second to end it. He now sports a 2.54 ERA and 1.22 WHIP over 91 2/3 innings on the season while converting three of his first five save opportunities.

Bachman left Sunday’s appearance against the Brewers after picking up just one out and issuing a walk. The right-hander believes he’ll be ok, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he missed a couple more days at least.

Sosa has been out since the end of May and just resumed swinging the bat recently. The 26-year-old does not have a timetable for a return at this point.

Fraley suffered a setback in rehab in the middle of July. There’s no timetable for when he’ll be ready to return, but this opens up a spot on the 40-man roster to make room for the Rays recent deadline acquisitions.

Meckler took Jacob Misiorowski deep for a two-run shot to give the Angels a 2-0 lead, and that was all the offense Walbert Ureña and the Angels’ bullpen would need. Meckler has done a nice job in his limited looks with three homers and a .780 OPS over 149 at-bats with the Halos.

Pereira, who was in the lineup against a righty because Braden Montgomery couldn’t go, probably isn’t ever going to make enough contact to be a major contributor, but he does run into a ball now and again. His 393-foot double off Craig Kimbrel today would have a homer in five ballparks. His actual homer was hit 410 feet to left center in the ninth. The White Sox are due to face lefties in four of their six games against Boston and Cleveland this week, so Pereira should have a little chance here to see if he can get a hot streak going.

In both the fourth and sixth innings, the Rays were able to string together three hits against Kay, but they were all singles and none produced any runs. Kay improved to 8-5 with a 4.01 ERA. He’s certainly not overwhelming anyone, but he’s gone six straight starts without allowing more than three runs. He’ll face the Guardians next weekend.

Ryan Vilade started the game with an error at second base and Jax later made an error of his own on a tapper back to the mound in the White Sox’s two-run first inning. The lone earned run was produced by an Andrew Benintendi 378-foot home run. It’s the fourth time in five starts that Jax has allowed exactly one earned run. He’ll be a fine option in mixed leagues with a road start in Seattle coming up.

No steals, though. All three hits were on grounders. He’s up to .404/.411/.462 with five steals since the All-Star break, though that’s only amounted to six runs scored and three RBI in 15 games.