AL DIVISION SERIES: WHITE SOX VS GUARDIANS

October 7, 2026

Will Venable

Rate Field

Chicago White Sox

Postgame 3 Press Conference

Guardians 9, White Sox 3

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for Will.

Q. Will, this has been a resilient team all year. How confident are you in the leaders of this clubhouse to make sure that they go in and say, hey, there's no reason for us to hang our heads; we've still got a lead in the series; we're going to bounce back tomorrow?

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, 100 percent confidence. We've done it all year. We've been in tough spots where we haven't played our best games, we've played good games. Whatever the result, these guys came back the next day. It's really kind of been the story of our group and being able to bounce back no matter what happens.

Q. What did you see there in the third inning from Hudson and Smith?

WILL VENABLE: Coming in, the plan is to kind of go in from Newc to Huddy and using Hagen, who has limited capacity, as kind of the fireman to douse some things there.

The walks and some contact there just made it tough. And then that at-bat with Adell, you get him two strikes, he does a nice job fighting off a fastball and hitting the ball hard.

So just got to be able to execute a little bit better, get outs. And, again, talked about this the whole series, that these guys are going to make you pay for walks. First couple games, they didn't. But today, they did.

Q. Miguel also had two strikes on that smash down the line. What was your vantage point on that play and what you saw out of Ramírez, the game he had on both sides?

WILL VENABLE: Yeah, great game by Ramírez. Obviously, we know how special a player he is. Really good play there to knock the ball down. Didn't trickle far enough for us to be able to get Vargy safe at first base. But, yeah, you know, kind of had him on the ropes there. It was a really big opportunity, nice swing by Vargy, and a great play by Ramírez.

Q. How much did Schultz kind of settle things down there with the three innings? How does that set you guys up tomorrow with some of your high-leverage guys you didn't have to use? Schultz, how much does it help you to get the three innings from him and how much does it help for tomorrow? You didn't use as many of your high-leverage guys; you have them available for tomorrow.

WILL VENABLE: We'll evaluate where we are with the capacity for some of these guys. Schultz was part of the plan today and did a nice job in the middle to cover some ground. Puts us in a spot where we're able to collect ourselves and reevaluate where we're at. Schultzy did a really nice job.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.