White Sox 'address things' behind closed doors

CHICAGO -- Around 3 1/2 hours prior to Houston’s 5-1 victory over the White Sox on Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field, manager Pedro Grifol closed the clubhouse to meet with his team.

Why did Grifol feel it was time to talk with his White Sox charges?

“Maybe we’re 13-26,” Grifol said. “Maybe that’s the reason.”

Make that 13-27.

After a two-hour and 10-minute rain delay, the White Sox got an uneven start from Michael Kopech and only managed three hits off Houston starter J.P. France (1-0) and three relievers, losing a third straight game and for the fifth time in seven games. They matched a season-worst 14 games under .500, going 6-6 since they dipped to 7-21 to start the 2023 campaign.

Grifol believes what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse, much like many experienced baseball people in his position. But he directly and, at times, tersely commented Thursday about his team being outplayed in a series loss to the Royals and how the lack of urgency wasn’t there consistently.

Those points were addressed on Friday, without Grifol going into detail.

“We talked about it. The thing is, I’m not going to sit here and talk about the things that we do and the conversations we have in private,” Grifol said. “The one thing I can tell you is that we address things, but what happens in there stays in there.

“I’m not going to elaborate too much on it. But rest assured, we address things as they come up and as we feel they need to be addressed.”

Kopech (1-4) had good stuff on Friday, by his own admission, according to Grifol and simply by watching him pitch. The Astros (20-18) didn’t pick up a hit until Kyle Tucker dropped a double down the left-field line just out of the reach of a sliding Andrew Benintendi to give Houston a 2-1 lead with two outs in the fifth.

There also was the case of six walks and one hit batsman coming from Kopech, leading to an earlier exit after reaching 94 pitches in the fifth. Speaking only for himself on this night, Kopech felt as if he was pressing.

“I haven’t had the start to the season I want. I know we haven’t as a team either,” said Kopech, who fanned five. “If we want to turn things around, then we can’t press. I can only speak for myself, but that’s what happened tonight.

“Overall, I wanted to make every pitch you know the best one. And with that being said, the best pitch is a strike. So, I gotta stop worrying about what the stuff looks like and get ahead of guys, and my stuff will play once I do. Wasn’t a good one.”

It’s tough to avoid pressing when a team with playoff hopes entering the campaign is off to one of its worst starts in franchise history. But Grifol stressed postgame Friday how the team has to dig down deep to understand what will really make things happen.

“Pressing as a group, pressing as individuals. That’s not the answer to this,” Grifol said. “Going out there and preparing prior to the game and going out there and having fun during the game, that’s what this thing is about. It’s 162 games. You can’t press your way through 162 games. At some point, you gotta let it go and have some fun.

“You have to play this game relaxed and loose. This game will eat you up if you’re not going about it that way. It’s pretty simple. It doesn’t surprise me that [Kopech] said that. He wants to win. He’s a competitor. And we, as a team, need to play some baseball and go relax and have fun. It looks like there’s more than one that’s pressing.”

Friday’s setback also featured José Abreu’s return to Chicago as part of the Astros after playing nine top-flight seasons with the White Sox, standing third in franchise history with 243 home runs. He received a pregame video tribute, a standing ovation in his first at-bat and finished the night 1-for-5.

Otherwise it was a familiar storyline for the White Sox, aside from the pregame team meeting.

“There’s things we have to address, but I’m not going to get too deep into what I spoke about or what was said,” Grifol said. “Just the fact that everybody knows we had a meeting is not what I’m about.”