Second-year manager Will Venable has the upstart Chicago White Sox atop the AL Central, but he made a bad rookie mistake during an important game against the second-place Cleveland Guardians on Friday night (CLE 8, CWS 2).
Venable had to remove starter Noah Schultz with one out in the first inning because he accidentally made a second mound visit when he went out to argue that the runner missed third base on an RBI single. Venable crossed the foul line, which counts as a mound visit. Pitching coach Zach Bove visited Schultz earlier in the inning, so, by rule, Venable had to make a pitching change.
"Just an inexcusable mistake by me," Venable said. "We had an appeal play that we wanted to execute, and in the urgency of trying to make that happen, just totally lost that we had visited, and obviously that was a mistake. So just messed it up. It was just on me. That's on me. Just a mistake by me, and one of those you've got to learn from. Can't happen, but it did, so move on from it."
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was on the umpires immediately, pointing out Venable was making Chicago's second mound visit of the inning. Coaches and managers can visit with an individual pitcher once per inning. The second mound visit to the same pitcher triggers an automatic pitching change unless there are injury or equipment concerns.
Schultz was wobbly to begin the game. He allowed a leadoff single to Steven Kwan, struck out Chase DeLauter, allowed a single to José Ramírez, then hit Jo Adell with a pitch to load the bases. That's when Bove went out for the first mound visit. Angel Martínez followed with a two-run single. Venable then went out with the intention to appeal, but accidentally made a mound visit.
Reliever David Sandlin had begun to move around in the bullpen before Venable went out to appeal. Sandlin said he was able to make about eight warmup pitches in the bullpen as the umpires got together to discuss Venable's mound visit, plus his usual eight warmup pitches on the game mound. Sandlin escaped the inning but was ultimately charged with six runs in 5 ⅓ innings.
After the game, Venable explained it was a planned short start for Schultz as the team manages his workload. Sandlin was going to soak up innings out of the bullpen anyway. Venable and the White Sox just got less than expected from Schultz and had to go to Sandlin earlier than planned because of the mound-visit gaffe.
"It's a mistake," Venable explained. "But at the same time, as far as our game plan and what we had coming into the game, where at signs of trouble we were going to go short with Noah there and have Sandlin here for bulk there in the middle of the game, the impact on the overall plan wasn't significant. But certainly a mistake and something we've got to move on from."
Prior to being named White Sox manager last year, the 43-year-old Venable was an associate manager under Bruce Bochy with the Texas Rangers from 2022-24. He had previously worked as a coach and in the front office with the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox, plus he played nine seasons in the big leagues from 2008-16.
The Guardians took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Friday and blew the game open on Martínez's fifth-inning grand slam off Sandlin. At 58-59, Cleveland is tied for second place with the Minnesota Twins and two games behind the 59-56 White Sox. Chicago has lost four straight.
