Rick Renteria (1 gm.), Cordero (3) suspended

CHICAGO -- White Sox reliever Jimmy Cordero received a three-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for intentionally hitting Willson Contreras with a pitch during the top of the seventh inning of Friday night’s 10-0 Cubs victory at Guaranteed Rate Field. The news was announced Saturday by Chris Young, senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball.

Manager Rick Renteria received a one-game suspension and an undisclosed fine as a result of Cordero’s actions, while White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper received an undisclosed fine. Contreras launched a three-run home run off Dylan Cease in the third inning and added one of the more pronounced celebratory bat flips of the season, before being hit by Cordero four innings later. Cordero was then ejected shortly after the umpires had an on-field conference.

Cooper and Renteria vehemently objected and were also ejected. After the White Sox sixth straight loss, Renteria and Cordero said the pitch was unintentional and simply a 97.5 mph sinker that got away in Cordero's fourth pitch of the frame. Nonetheless, Renteria served his one-game levy on Saturday.

“They are trying to maintain consistency,” said Renteria in a Saturday Zoom call. “We stated our case, so to speak.

“We explained it wasn’t something we were looking to do, and it happened. But it’s in their judgement, it’s the protocol they have in place. Just abide by it.”

Cordero has appealed, so the discipline will be held in abeyance until the appeal process is complete, per MLB.

“If a player throws at a guy, whether it slipped or it didn't, there's no way to really know that in my seat,” Cubs manager David Ross said. “I know how it looks. I think Ricky knows how it looked. And Major League Baseball knows how it looked. And it looked really bad. They did their job, and we'll move on.”

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn delivered direct and reasonable comments responding to this situation in broader focus earlier Saturday on WSCR 670 AM.

“From my standpoint, quite frankly, if you don’t want the guy to showboat or bat flip or whatever, get him out. Don’t give him the opportunity to have something to celebrate,” Hahn told the radio hosts. “My answer is exactly the same whether we are talking about an opponent celebrating something they’ve done against us as it would be a year ago when we were talking about Tim Anderson or any of our players demonstrating a little personality on the field.

“There’s not room in the current game, in my opinion, for potentially risking a player’s health by potentially throwing an object at him. That’s part of the player showing their own personality. There’s a way to stop that from happening, and that’s by keeping him in the park.”

Left-field options

Renteria described left fielder Eloy Jiménez and his right mid-foot sprain as progressing positively, with treatment continuing over the next three days. If Jiménez is unable to go in the Wild Card Series, Adam Engel will play a more prominent role on the heels of a strong 2020 regular season.

But the Gold Glove-caliber defender and one of the AL’s fastest players won’t change his game to try to match what Jiménez produces at the plate.

“That's not who I am,” Engel said. “I'd make the team worse if I tried to be like Eloy, so I'm just going out there playing my game and trying to help the team win the best way I know how.”

The White Sox also might get a playoff boost from Leury García, who has been out of action since Aug. 10 after severing a ligament in his left thumb while sliding into first and then having it surgically repaired. García has been swinging the bat at the team’s alternate training site in Schaumburg, Ill., and he will be at Guaranteed Rate Sunday.

“Nothing surprises me about Leury,” Renteria said. “This kid can sit for a month, fall out of bed and hit like he’s playing every single day and do a lot of special things between the lines. “

Third to first
• Designated hitter Edwin Encarnación could be a valuable postseason component, despite hitting .167 with a .659 OPS this season. But Renteria also stressed his postseason lineup could change.

“He has a lot of experience and understanding of the postseason. We still owe him an opportunity, in my opinion, to try to see if we can get him going for the right moment in time,” Renteria said. “Understand me: There’s nothing that precludes me from making adjustments to our lineup as we go forward in the postseason.”

• Entering Saturday, the White Sox had a slash line of .178/.241/.343 with 27 runs scored over the last 10 games. They were 2-8 in that stretch.