KANSAS CITY -- Colson Montgomery set a record he definitely didn’t want during Thursday afternoon’s 9-1 series-finale win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
The White Sox shortstop, who has 31 home runs and 87 RBIs, went 0-for-4 and struck out in his second at-bat to give him 223 for the season. That number leaves him five ahead of Kyle Schwarber’s 218 and not only topples Adam Dunn’s single-season American League and franchise record of 222 set in 2012, but it also matches Mark Reynolds’ Major League mark of 223 in 2009.
It’s been a rough September overall for the talented Montgomery, who is slashing .111/.238/.236 with two homers, 10 RBIs and 38 strikeouts against eight walks. But the 24-year-old has a good perspective on the game overall including the swings and misses.
“You get what you focus on,” Montgomery said during a recent interview. “I feel like if you sit there and you are focusing on striking out all the time, you are probably going to get more of that stuff. So, I’ve just been trying to alter my mind to get good pitches to hit.
“I’m still a really young player, so I’m trying to still learn my swing to perfect it. Learn my game and things like that. I’m not a finished product by any means. It’s one of those things you have to accept. Your talent is you can change the game with one swing so I’m not going to change my swing. I’m not going to try to shorten up or do any sort of that stuff.”
Montgomery certainly isn’t the only White Sox position player with strikeouts piling up over the course of the season. Munetaka Murakami picked up his 191st in the first inning on Thursday, as an example.
Checking out what else they are contributing and how they are getting there is important to the discovery.
“I would be sitting here lying to you if I’m OK with strikeouts. No one is. They are not,” White Sox hitting coach Derek Shomon told MLB.com. “But on the other side, what are you gaining? Why are the strikeouts occurring? Is it a ton of in-zone miss? Is it a byproduct of chase? Is it a byproduct of chase with two strikes.
“If so, on what pitch, where? How can you start to pull back kind of the layers and get down to the source, the root, the cause of what is ultimately showing up as strikeouts? Yeah, no one loves them. But a part of why this offense has succeeded this year is going up there confident, free, with the ability to hit balls hard on a line.
“Again, that’s not OK with strikeouts,” Shomon added. “But I believe in the side of this, not making a massive deal about it has allowed those guys the freedom to continue to do the things they do well. It doesn’t take me getting down their throat or chewing their asses out to let them know that’s not OK.”
Manager Will Venable sees Montgomery contributing in a number of different ways. He’s also able to separate his personal numbers from team success, with the White Sox clinching a playoff spot on Thursday.
“I guess if we want to sit and dwell in that, he could,” Venable said. “But he's choosing to go out and do everything he can to be competitive and we want to support him.”