From the Locker Room: Yasmani Grandal Is Looking Forward to Bullpen Day
Count Yasmani Grandal as another White Sox player encouraged by the late-game comeback that saw lead run José Abreu reach the plate in the ninth inning.
"Playoff time is all about momentum, who has it and who doesn’t," said Grandal, a rare postseason veteran on this White Sox squad. "Putting it back on our side puts us in a good position tomorrow."
Grandal was particularly jazzed about running up a 49 pitch count on A's closer Liam Hendriks, who was tasked with a somewhat bizarre outing that began with no one out, one on, in the eighth inning.
"Very important," Grandal said. "Obviously, he’s one of the most elite guys in the game. He’s got electric stuff. You’re going into war against him. The fact that we were able to get that many pitches out of him, we were able to battle him and get to him late, that’s a plus for us. Pretty sure in the same situation tomorrow, he’s going to be in there."
One of the things that made a Game 2 win so crucial for the White Sox is that they have, well, only two reliable starters. But the all-hands-on-deck bullpen game that's coming doesn't scare Grandal at all.
"Throw them out there, I have plenty of confidence in [our young relief arms]," he said. "They’ve shown they can do it. By the looks of it, they like to be on the big stage."
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Yasmani Grandal footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.