The White Sox are sticking with the same kind of pitching puzzle that worked in Game 1, and Sean Burke is right in the middle of it.
Manager Will Venable said Monday at Progressive Field that left-hander Anthony Kay will open Game 2 of the American League Division Series before Burke takes over in a bulk role. Burke, who started Game 2 of the AL Wild Card series and struck out eight over four innings, is set to follow Kay against Cleveland.
The setup mirrors what Chicago used in Friday’s 3-0 win, when lefty Hagen Smith handled the opening assignment in a bullpen game. Burke, though, is expected to be available for a longer outing than Smith was, since Smith went 2 2/3 innings.
“It’s just everybody kind of doing their own individual role,” Burke said. “Just do anything you can to kind of help the team.
Throw a zero and just pass the baton to the next guy. This is really just like a team effort from top to bottom, bottom to top.”
The matchup gives Kay the first crack at the top of Cleveland’s order, which features left-handed hitter Steven Kwan, switch-hitter José Ramírez and lefty Chase DeLauter. For Burke, the job is the same as always: attack early, get ahead and force hitters into tough counts.
“I think just getting ahead of them, that's the biggest thing,” Burke said. “I talked about that a lot this year and that's been my main focus. More times than not, if I get ahead of guys early and go to pitcher's counts, I'm going to put people away, and I'm going to take control of the at-bat, and I think this is kind of the same thing.”
Burke, 26, is coming off his first postseason start, a game in which he worked in the strike zone but also allowed three solo homers to the Astros. Venable said he wasn’t concerned about the long ball and pointed instead to Burke’s ability to get ahead of hitters.
“I thought he did great,” Venable said. “One of the things that we really monitor and kind of how we evaluate guys' performance is the race to two strikes.
Getting to two strikes before two balls. ... If he's got command and he's being effective in the zone, he's going to get a lot of outs no matter who he's facing.”
This season, Burke posted a 3.34 ERA with 185 strikeouts in 172 1/3 innings. He’s also been used behind an opener before, making 27 starts but pitching behind one five times this year and six times in ’25.
He has also handled Cleveland well over his career, putting up a 2.56 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 31 2/3 innings against the Guardians. This year, he was even sharper, going 2-0 with a 1.04 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.
Burke said Cleveland’s lineup puts the ball in play a lot, but that doesn’t change his approach. He leans on a mix that includes a four-seamer, knuckle-curve, slider, sinker and cutter.
Even with the unusual setup, Burke said he has no issue with the role if it helps Chicago keep moving.
“I dreamed of the World Series when I dreamed of playoff starts,” Burke said. “So whatever's going to get us to the World Series, I'm all in on doing that.”
The White Sox also have to sort out how much they can lean on Grant Taylor and Smith after both were heavily involved in Game 1. Smith threw 2 2/3 hitless innings on 51 pitches, and Taylor covered four scoreless innings for a rare 12-out save on 42 pitches.
Venable said the team will check on both pitchers and keep making decisions based on availability and matchups. Neither is expected to work as many innings as they did Saturday, though Sunday’s off-day and another off-day Tuesday give Chicago some breathing room.
“We really like Grant Taylor and Hagen Smith,” Venable said. “Obviously, there's a lot to like with these guys and we want to use them to win games, but we want to be responsible, also.
We don't want injuries. If Grant is going to pitch four innings every game, I think we'd, like, kill him, right?
So we’re taking it game by game.”
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