Andrew

Benintendi

With left-hander Parker Messick taking the ball for the Guardians, Antonacci will begin this one on the bench for the White Sox. Fellow left-handed hitters Andrew Benintendi and Tristan Peters will also take a seat for the Southsiders. Here’s how Will Venable’s club will line up as they look to punch their ticket to the ALCS on Thursday: Chase Meidroth (2B), Randal Grichuk (LF), Miguel Vargas (3B), Munetaka Murakami (1B), Tommy Pham (DH), Brenton Doyle (CF), Kyle Teel (C), Braden Montgomery (RF) and Colson Montgomery (SS).

The Guardians are starting Daniel Espino as an opener, but Foster Griffin, who is a left-handed pitcher, will follow him, so the White Sox will bench the left-handed-hitting Benintendi for Randal Grichuk. Chase Meidroth will move up in the batting order and hit fifth, while Grichuk starts in left field and bats eighth, which makes it likely his first at-bat will not be against the right-handed Espino.

Benintendi will hit fifth and be the designated hitter, while Tristan Peters will bat sixth and play center field. Both of them were out for Game 1 against left-handed starter Parker Messick. While Benintendi never entered the game, Peters replaced Randal Grichuk when the Guardians went to the bullpen and went 1-for-2 with a single. Brenton Doyle and Tommy Pham will head to the bench for Game 2.

Peters doesn’t normally sit against left-handers, but the White Sox have opted to work in all of their bench bats in this one with Peters, Colson Montgomery, Andrew Benintendi, Kyle Teel and Sam Antonacci all getting a breather in this one. Brenton Doyle will start in Peters’ place and will bat sixth against Tigers’ southpaw Framber Valdez.

Benintendi was the White Sox offense today; the rest of the lineup combined to go 0-for-27 against Bailey Ober and company. He drove in the team’s run in the first, scored the second run in the fourth thanks to a Kaelen Culpepper error and then hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth. It’s probably his best game since he hit two homers and drove in five runs against the Twins last September. He now has 18 career homers against the Twins, which is seven more than he has versus any other team.

He’ll be back in the mix for strong-side platoon at-bats going forward, and seems likely to start tonight against RHP Dean Kremer.

Benintendi figures to miss the next two games against Texas. Rikuu Nishida is taking his place and could make a start or two.

It was the team’s two oldest position players who kept the White Sox in the game tonight; Benintendi took Ryan Zeferjahn deep while batting for Randal Grichuk, who previously hit a three-run homer off Shota Imanaga in the fourth. Those blasts accounted for all five White Sox runs in what turned into a 10-inning loss. Benintendi’s homer was his 13th of the year. He has a .744 OPS that rates as his best mark since 2022.

Benintendi knocked a base hit and scored a run in the third inning, then came through in a big spot for Chicago in the seventh. With left-hander Drew Sommers on the mound, after intentionally walking Miguel Vargas, Benintendi singled on a ground ball to left field to drive in the go-ahead run for the White Sox. The 32-year-old outfielder is hitting .248/.310/.424 with 12 homers and 60 RBI across 366 plate appearances.

The White Sox might actually be able to get out from under some of Benintendi’s contract this summer if this keeps up. He’s hit .284/.360/.597 in June to improve to .247/.302/.443 overall. That he has no real defensive value is a problem, so the White Sox will certainly have to pay down a part of the $14.5 million he’s owed in the final year of his deal next season. Still, things are looking up from where they were a couple of months ago, when it seemed the team might be best served by just releasing him.