The Little Things

Zach Remillard didn’t do enough of the big things to get promoted to the White Sox until midseason this year, at age twenty-nine. But Remillard does the little things well. Last night’s 5-3 win over the Cubs at Wrigley was a clinic in that regard. In the second inning, he bunted for a hit; stole second base; and nearly passed Yasmani Grandal—who had a ninety-foot lead at third base—to score on a single by Elvis Andrus. That was it for Remillard offensively. But he found other ways to contribute. In the seventh inning with the Sox up by a run, Nico Hoerner singled with one out. Given that Grandal was behind the plate, of course Hoerner was going to try to steal second. Miracle of miracles, Grandal got the throw to the bag and Remillard applied the tag, holding his ground on a hard slide by Hoerner. That play came an inning after Remillard ranged far to his left for a popup from Christopher Morel, with a runner on and nobody out. Remillard misses the ball, and it’s runners on the corners and the makings of a big inning. Speaking of little things, Andrew Benintendi increased his RBI total by one, with a run-scoring double in the ninth. That gives the White Sox player with the biggest contract ever thirty-two on the season, or one less than Andrus. Benintendi has 421 at-bats to Andrus’ 270, and most of those have come at the lower end of the order. No doubt, Rick Hahn would point out Benintendi’s fifty-six runs scored vs. Andrus’ twenty-seven. Feel free, Rick. You still overpaid. There was nothing small or little about the homerun Luis Robert Jr. hit in the top of the seventh off of Julian Merryweather, not at a measured distance of 422 feet. And it was hard to miss Robert turning around after he hit it to shush some Cubs’ fans who were riding him. That’s the problem with heckling the opposition. It can blow up in your face at the worst time.