Everything's falling into place for Velasquez

BOSTON -- White Sox right-hander Vince Velasquez took a look at Shohei Ohtani’s shutdown mound effort against the Red Sox on Thursday afternoon, where the reigning AL Most Valuable Player fanned 11 in seven innings, and knew his start in Friday’s series-opening 4-2 victory at Fenway Park would look nothing like that performance.

“He throws 99, and I ain’t a 99 guy anymore,” Velasquez said with a smile after picking up his second straight victory. “These guys are definitely going to make you work. You’ve got to be really fine with your pitches.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of punchouts today, but I utilized the defense as much as I possibly can and forced some contact and made big pitches when I needed to. It’s a good sign of heading in the right direction knowing that things are kind of falling into their right place.”

Velasquez allowed nine earned runs over 12 innings in his first three starts, giving him the early look of a talented experiment failing for a team picked by many to win the AL Central. But in his last two starts, the veteran has allowed one run on seven hits and two walks over 10 2/3 innings.

These results aren’t a surprise to Velasquez, a true student of the game who knew better days were ahead as long as he didn’t alter his focus.

“That’s just the mental focus of staying present,” Velasquez said. “I’ve always been one of those guys that would kind of let things kind of spiral and I just think, ‘I still have another out to get, there’s another batter to face.’ And staying on task.

“Things will obviously kind of get out of hand here or there, but that’s when you have to have that mental control of what you’re good at and what’s working and kind of go based off of that. It’s just a sense of awareness, knowing what’s working and staying on task.”

Boston (10-17) didn’t score until the fifth, trailing by a 3-0 margin at that point thanks to Luis Robert’s two-run homer in the third off Nathan Eovaldi. Velasquez had runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the fifth before getting Trevor Story to chase a pitch out of the zone for his second and final strikeout among his 75 pitches.

Replays left some doubt as to whether Story checked his swing on the 2-2 offering, with Story and Boston manager Alex Cora arguing the call from first-base umpire Carlos Torres. But a smiling Velasquez said postgame that Story went around.

“Oh, he did,” Velasquez said. “Oh yeah. I looked at it, he did. Again, every pitcher is obviously going to say he did. But I looked at it and, I’m like, ‘You went, bro.’

“Story is going to make me work, man. I faced him in Colorado and he was one of those guys that did some damage on me. It came down to execution. Kind of helping myself get back into the count and I let him get himself out. It’s a matter of having that boost of confidence and knowing that there is one pitch that can have that impact and I want to win that.”

Matt Foster, Aaron Bummer, Kendall Graveman and Liam Hendriks closed out the victory, with Hendriks picking up his eighth save, as well as saving all four games in this current winning streak. The White Sox moved back to within one game of .500 at 12-13 and have the feel they envisioned at the start of the season, surviving a rough stretch that included an eight-game losing streak.

“Obviously the more you win, the more joy it brings,” Hendriks said. “Then it just rolls. It turns into that cyclone rainstorm: when it rains it pours. Everybody assumes the next guy is going to pick him up. We are picking each other up every time and it’s been a lot of fun being in this clubhouse lately.

“It’s always been a good group. It’s just every now and then you go through the little lulls. Now we know how to get ourselves out of it. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again, but if it does, we know how to get out of it hopefully a lot quicker than we did last time.”

Friday’s win ended a road lull for Velasquez, who was 0-7 with a 13.50 ERA and a .364 opposing batting average allowed over his last seven road starts.

“Just got to give it some time, and things will fall into its category,” said Velasquez, whose ERA dropped to 3.97 overall. “This is something that I’ve been longing to seek for. Just seems like it’s all clicking.”