Looking at the raw numbers from 2026, the Chicago White Sox's stable of pitchers ultimately hover around league average, so I guess I can't start by saying something that feels emotionally true to me, which is "The Sox are going to try to be the first team to win the World Series without any pitchers." But when I think back on this stretch run, as I watched my newly adopted sons try and fail to hold off Cleveland in the AL Central and settle instead for the six-seed in the American League, two images stand out to me: that incredibly clutch Randal Grichuk dinger, and Will Venable walking out to the mound to make yet another pitching change. You don't have to worry about getting in your steps when you manage the White Sox.
The Sox don't have a rotation so much as they do a skeleton crew: the very good Sean Burke and a bunch of rotating temps. Only three players have made more than 15 starts for the team this year, and that weakness has only gotten more glaring as the games get more meaningful. Anthony Kay, one of those few regulars, rarely makes it past the fifth inning and has an ERA of 4.44. Davis Martin has struggled with injury. Erick Fedde is often paired with an opener. Luis Castillo had a go of it when he was traded from the Mariners, but is back on mop-up duty. The point is, Venable's had to treat the high-stress games of September like he was cooking a six-course meal, constantly switching between appliances and instruments as he tried to get to the end without burning anything.
If we're going to extend this metaphor as far as we can, then Grant Taylor is Venable's rice cooker. You can turn him on, go breathe for a minute, and trust that he won't start a fire. The 24-year-old from Alabama is in his second MLB season, and after looking promising but inconsistent as a rookie on a 102-loss team, he is now the most trusted arm in a group that's up 1-0 on the Astros in a short playoff series. During Game 1 in Houston on Tuesday, it was Taylor who carried the team to victory in a bullpen game, throwing a career-high 54 pitches as he earned the final seven outs of a 6-3 win.
Again and again this White Sox season, Taylor's been the one jogging in from beyond the fences when the game needs calming: tied or a one-run score, guys on base, multiple innings still left to get through. He's displayed a full arsenal of plus pitches this season, and his ideal future on this team is as that much-needed top starter. There are still some control and home run issues to improve on—when guys hit him, they hit him hard—but for now he is regularly being called upon to retire six (or more!) hitters when the game is tensest, just as he did in his first career playoff appearance.
It was all relievers all the time for both teams, and Chicago's rookie opener Hagen Smith did a near-flawless job as he pitched three shutout innings while his boys took a 4-0 lead. Jordan Hicks took the ball and did enough to earn the win in the official scorer's book, then after journeyman Sean Newcomb surrendered a two-run dong, another rookie in David Sandlin steadied the ship. With two outs and a runner on second in the bottom of the seventh, the Sox up 6-2, Venable decided it was Taylor Time. He got out of that inning easily, then mixed strikeouts and singles in the eighth as an unearned run scored with two down on a grounder Jose Altuve barely beat out. (Miguel Vargas got charged with an error for a slightly off-line throw.) Taylor came back from that misfortune with a game-defining conquest of Yainer Diaz, freezing the Astros catcher with a doozy of a 3-2 curveball (following five straight fastballs) that wiggled its way into the outside-high corner just as it crossed the plate.
Taylor doesn't always finish the games he enters, only picking up 10 saves on the year. But he took the mound again in the ninth and, after a lead-off walk, completed the victory with minimal drama (as well as a pair of three-pitch Ks).
"That's more than we’ve pushed Grant,” Venable said after the game. “It’s a situation where I'm trying to empty the tank with him."
But with no more appealing option when the game is in the balance, Sox fans better hope that Taylor's tank is nowhere near E. He'll certainly be back on the hill, either in the next round or to try to get Chicago over the finish line if the Astros make a series of it. Asked when he could pitch next, Taylor said, "Ideally, tomorrow." Clearly, there's nobody Venable trusts more. Not that he really has a choice.
