Colson Montgomery will walk into the White Sox clubhouse with a clean slate in front of him Tuesday, when Chicago opens the American League Wild Card Series on the road in Texas at 4 p.m. CT. The rookie shortstop carries a season’s worth of highs, a difficult September and a record he never wanted, but October offers him and the club a fresh count.
The result
The White Sox were sent to the Wild Card round by Saturday night’s 9-6 loss to the Rockies, a defeat that ended their hopes of taking the American League Central. Chicago would have welcomed the five-day break that comes with a division title, but there is little room to linger on that disappointment now.
Montgomery did not start that game. He came up as a pinch-hitter in the sixth with Chicago behind 5-2 and struck out with the tying run at the plate, ending the inning. Two innings later, down 5-3 with runners at first and third and one out, he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
It was another rough chapter in a second-half slide that has followed an All-Star-caliber first portion of Montgomery’s first complete Major League campaign. Over 61 games since the break, the 24-year-old has batted .166/.257/.309 with eight home runs, 34 RBIs and 104 strikeouts. September was especially harsh: .104/.225/.221, two homers, 10 RBIs and 40 strikeouts.
His 225 strikeouts set a Major League single-season record. Still, his full-season production entering Sunday’s regular-season finale stood at 31 home runs and 87 RBIs, the kind of impact that helped put Chicago in the postseason picture in the first place.
Montgomery said he knows the recent attention has not been pleasant, particularly after the strikeout record, but he has tried to keep the larger body of work in view.
“It’s not something you want associated with your name,” Montgomery said before Sunday’s finale. “But I can’t spend all my time looking at the negative. There have been plenty of positives for the team and for me personally this year.”
He said allowing recent struggles to consume him would not serve a club heading into the playoffs. His goal is to arrive each day as the same teammate, keep working, enjoy the game and treat the end of each day as a reset.
That approach has become his central lesson from the season. Montgomery said a player cannot get carried away with a hot stretch or stay buried in a poor one, because either extreme can make consistency difficult. He acknowledged that he has handled those swings well at times and poorly at others.
Manager Will Venable has stayed close to Montgomery through both parts of the season. Venable said the shortstop has had to put in work mentally, but has shown maturity in recognizing both his frustrations and the ways he has contributed to Chicago’s position.
“He probably would rather not have the strikeout record,” Venable said. “But he has focused on what he has done well and what he has meant to us. We see those things, too. Tuesday starts a new chapter.”
The White Sox will need the version of Montgomery who supplied power and production across the full season if they are to make a run through October. The calendar gives him the chance to make the late skid matter less.
“When the day is done, it’s done,” Montgomery said. “A guy can struggle coming in and then have a huge postseason, and suddenly the earlier stuff is behind him. We can’t change any of it. We’re looking ahead to Tuesday.”
Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series is scheduled for Tuesday on NBC, Peacock and NBCSN.
