From the Locker Room: Nick Madrigal Keeps His Head Up

And the rookie, new to so much in 2020, still sees a high-spirited locker room.

You hate to even have to note that the goat of Game 2 was Nick Madrigal, who struggled in the field and on the base paths, because even still he had two, two-strike hits and was instrumental in the ninth-inning rally that brought the lead run to the plate at Oakland.

"Kinda frustrating," Madrigal said of the grounder that bounded off of the lip of the infield, an error that led to the two A's runs in the first inning. "I felt I had a good read on it, but last second it caught the lip. That’s something [about playing in Oakland] I’ll keep in the back of my mind. It’s frustrating."

True to the optimistic young second baseman's nature, he was more focused on the things he could do to rally the team from a deficit than getting caught up in a failure.

"There’s a whole lot of game left, and I was hoping to come back and win the game," Madrigal said. "You can’t have your head down. I was frustrated, but understood that the team needed me."

And echoing all his teammates, Madrigal was excited about the late rally and felt its momentum would be a boon to Chicago's fortunes in Game 3.

"Biggest thing, just try to carry the momentum to tomorrow’s game," Madrigal said. "We had some good innings, we just didn’t cash in. No one’s really worried. We know what we can do. We just have to go out there and play our game."

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Nick Madrigal footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.