Colson

Montgomery

Montgomery is the 25th player to fan 200 times in a season and third member of the White Sox after Adam Dunn struck out 222 times in 2012 and Yoán Moncada fanned 217 times in 2018. The three tonight put him at 201, so Montgomery is 22 away from tying Mark Reynolds’ major league record with 17 games to play.

It’s an extremely rare off day for Vargas with Colson Montgomery taking over at the hot corner and Chase Meidroth at shortstop. The 26-year-old is in the middle of a career year at the dish, slashing .250/.361/.482 with 95 runs scored, 30 home runs, 79 RBI and 16 steals in 627 plate appearances over 142 games.

Montgomery’s home run was his 31st of the season. He hit a solo shot off Taj Bradley in the first inning. Montgomery now has three home runs in his last six games. He’s hitting .213 with a .734 OPS and 82 RBI.

He hit a 96 mph Zebby Matthews fastball over the bullpen in right-center, it landed 416 feet from the plate and made the score 4-0. Montgomery’s been all-or-nothing of late, hitting .182 over his last 15 games but with four homers and a .436 slugging percentage. He hasn’t exactly taken a major step forward -- he’s on pace to strike out over 230 times -- but the power is still here and still playing in fantasy leagues even if the batting average is hurting you for it.

Montgomery led off the fourth inning with a single, then later drove in two runs on a double in the fifth. He then drew a walk and scored a run in the seventh. The 24-year-old shortstop is hitting .216/.296/.438 with 29 homers, 63 runs scored, and 79 RBI across 550 plate appearances.

Montgomery’s home run was his 29th of the season. He smashed a solo shot off Bennett Sousa in the seventh inning. Montgomery was 20-for-100 (.200) with four home runs and 14 RBI in 26 games in August. He’s hitting .214 with a .729 OPS and 77 RBI this year.

Antonacci and Montgomery take a seat with lefty MacKenzie Gore toeing the rubber for Texas in this one. Luisangel Acuña is at shortstop with Tristan Peters in left field. The 23-year-old rookie will continue to cede the occasional start against a southpaw for the final months of the year. It’ll be Miguel Vargas moving up to the leadoff spot in a strange-looking lineup from Chicago manager Will Venable.

Montgomery is 0-for-13 with nine strikeouts the last three days, and he’s hitting just .188/.254/.313 in 33 games since the break. His strikeout rate is currently sitting at a dreadful 34 percent, which is up from 29 percent in 71 games as a rookie last year. It’s not a good sign for the future.

After a two-hour and 23-minute rain delay interrupted play following the first inning, the White Sox plated four runs in the third inning, which was punctuated by Montgomery’s three-run shot which landed beyond the fence in the right field corner. Montgomery entered Sunday’s action with a .136 batting average over his last 11 games, so hopefully this will get him going in the right direction. The White Sox won two out of three this weekend and hold a 2.5 game edge over the Tigers in the AL Central. After this weekend, the Guardians are four games back.

Montgomery has just one hit in his last five games, though that was a homer. Still, he’s down to .215/.295/.450 at the moment, giving him both his lowest average and OPS since late April. He’s batting .191 with 10 homers and six doubles since the beginning of June, compared to .234 with 15 homers and 11 doubles over the first two months.