AL WILD CARD SERIES: WHITE SOX VS ASTROS

September 29, 2026

Will Venable

Daikin Park

Chicago White Sox

Postgame Press Conference

White Sox - 6, Astros - 3

WILL VENABLE: We'll start with Will Venable.

Q. Let's start with the end. What did you see from Grant Taylor and just what did it take for him to go through those two and a third for you?

WILL VENABLE: Heroics, really. That's more than we pushed Grant. I think it's up around or about above 50 pitches, a situation where I'm trying to empty the tank with him. He's a guy that we trust to bring him in there in the 7th to clean up that inning and make sure that we're in a good spot there and kind of shut things down with a runner at second base.

A tough 8th inning where he really had to grind and then stepped up to the plate and got the job done in the 9th. So really good stuff from Grant. He's been our guy all year and came through today.

Q. When you have a bullpen-type day, what kind of lift did Hagen give you going three innings today?

WILL VENABLE: That was huge. We talked about a plan coming in, and in a perfect world, it was going to be Hagen for 11 batters. It couldn't have gone better as far as him really setting the tone for the guys coming in and, you know, attacking the zone, getting swing-and-miss. Just did great job and put us in a really good spot to continue the middle part of that game.

Q. Was plan A for you guys getting Grant as deep as possible? Did that kind of evolve as it went along there with him telling you guys, Hey, I can keep moving here?

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, he said he was good to go, so, you know, he's our guy, he's our guy that we trust. Kind of going into that and kind of figuring out where you want to drop Grant. You know, I think that there was a case to be made to start that 7th inning, but just with where we were at with a little bit of space we wanted to see if we could kick the can down the road and just get as many outs as we could with Sandlin. And then once we had a runner at second base, we wanted him to shut it down. So, yeah, leaning on Grant in a big way, but he's our guy.

Q. Colson's home run, what was the reaction in the dugout to him and what was his reaction? Because it had been awhile and he had been going through it.

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, I mean, that's the beautiful thing about the postseason is all of the stuff that happened throughout the regular season goes out the window. It's about just helping your team win. Colson put a great swing on that ball. Not many guys go out there to center field against a guy that was really handling us really well. I thought the fastball that he had was really good, good slider. He kind of stabilized things for them there in the middle of the game and a big swing by Colson to give us that extra run.

Q. A lot of guys had been talking about being able to hit the reset button here. A Game 1 win goes a long way, but how much do you feel that reset button being hit by those who needed to?

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, I think in a big way, you know, and they understand that this is a new season and it's really a one-game season at a time here. We know we have a series. We want to go out and win the series, but it starts with just playing one game, and I thought these guys in their focus and how they prepared we wanted to keep things as close to the regular season as possible and not have too many complex messages for them, and I thought they responded really well.

The coaching staff did a really good job of getting them prepared. So, yeah, really good stuff and the understanding that this is a new season and a new opportunity.

Q. You've talked so much about the turnaround, but to not only get here, but to get a win in the first game has got to be really satisfying for you and your guys.

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, it is. We came here to win the series and the first part of that is getting this first win, which is great. These guys believe that they can win series here in the postseason, which showed up in the way that they took the field, strike early there with a couple runs, and I thought just the mindset that -- not that you're worried about it, but a bunch of young guys that haven't been in this situation before, they didn't back down at all. So really good stuff to come out and have an early win.

Q. I was wondering, did you see that your team got a letter of support from the Pope?

WILL VENABLE: I did not see that.

Q. Okay. Well, he sent a letter of support for the team before the playoffs. What does it mean to you to continually have his support? Obviously you're the only MLB team that got that kind of support from him.

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, we'll take it. I think that's been the cool thing about this season is all the support that we're getting, certainly in Chicago and beyond. The Pope having our back and supporting us means a lot.

Q. You had a challenge we don't see very often with Jose Altuve's positioning on the field. I wonder if that's something you saw coming into the series or what you saw in that specific instance that warranted a challenge.

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, so that comes from the replay -- BJ and the replay center who is aware of all those things and looking closely at all those things. With two challenges, we talked about it before the game, before the series, that we want to go ahead and be aggressive. And so he noticed something immediately, that Altuve was on the grass to start. The problem with it is it's just a really hard call to get overturned, but worth it with two challenges there. So I thought it was a really good challenge, really good pickup by BJ, and it just didn't go our way.

Q. You guys able to set a pitching plan for tomorrow yet?

WILL VENABLE: Sean Burke will start tomorrow.

Q. What kind of tone did Sam Antonacci set for you guys today?

WILL VENABLE: A big one. Draw a walk there to start the game. That's the reason why he's in there in the leadoff spot is he has done such a good job all year setting the tone for the guys. And really it's not about necessarily the walks, it's more about the way that he competes, the way that he grinds. You know that pitchers are not going to get anything easy when Sammy is up to the plate. So a great guy in the leadoff spot to set the tone and did today.