After Saturday night, the daily intrasquad games will be, for the most part, over.
It’s time to bring on the Cubs.
In this weird, strange, masked summer of pandemic baseball, the White Sox have crammed loads of drills, indoor and outdoor batting practice, bullpen sessions, scrimmages and more against each other into two weeks of preparation.
On Sunday night, the Sox will play a crosstown exhibition game against Cubs at Wrigley Field, and will face them again Monday at Guaranteed Rate Field. On Wednesday, the Sox host the Brewers at Guaranteed Rate Field and on Friday the season begins at home against the AL Central champion Twins.
That the Cubs and Brewers of Milwaukee are the teams of choice to play in the tuneups is all about geography and convenience. That it’s the Cubs adds local flavor, color and an ESPN for audiences outside Chicago. It will will give us a first look of what baseball with two teams on one field will look like. And it’s a Cubs vs. Sox appetizer for three games at Wrigley the weekend of July 21 and at Guaranteed Rate Field to close a 60-game season Sept. 25-27.
Imagine if a playoff berth, or better yet – two – are on the line in that final series.
Sox manager Rick Renteria, a former Cubs manager, was embracing the Cubs-Sox thing coming Sunday, even if it’s played at an empty Wrigley Field.
It sure beats another intrasquad.
“It gives them a little bit more of an incentive when you’re playing against some opponents, let alone our opponents on the North Side, which should be fun,” Renteria said. “I hope everybody is able to take advantage of watching it.”
The normal ramp up to a season is a month’s worth of Cactus League games. Three weeks, and hitting the ground running from Day 1, has been physically stressful for the players, Renteria said.
“We’ve been pushing these guys,” Renteria said. “The fundamentals, the ground balls, the way it’s set up for everyone to get in their work, it’s fatiguing being out here for the hours let alone playing the intrasquad games. It’s a unique situation.
“But this is a different time and they know it. They know they are pushing themselves and being mindful what their bodies are doing.”
That the Sox have been fortunate to avoid injuries, with only Leury Garcia missing an intrasquad because of back soreness and Andrew Romine limited to DH duty because of a sore shoulder, per Renteria, offers optimism for Yoan Moncada being ready for the opener having taken the field just two days ago.
“All the indications so far right now, knock on wood … he looks good,” Renteria said.
The Sox have had enough of competing against each other, especially the pitchers who don’t throw inside with the same purpose against teammates as they would against another team.
“I don’t want to brush any of our guys back,” Rodon said. “When a different uniform steps in there, it’s game on for sure.”
