CHICAGO -- There were five players on the 2025 White Sox Opening Day roster Thursday afternoon at Rate Field who were on the club¡¯s ¡®24 Opening Day roster.
Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi, Jordan Leasure, Korey Lee and Andrew Vaughn had to deal with the worst season by sheer loss total in the Modern Era of Major League Baseball (since 1901) from start to finish. But those 121 setbacks are past history, as has been stated numerous times during Spring Training.
During an 8-1 shellacking of the Angels before a crowd of 31,403, the White Sox put one final stamp on the complete desire to move forward.
¡°It¡¯s a new team. A new manager,¡± said Lee, who finished 1-for-3 and scored a run. ¡°Fans were unbelievable today. It felt like a new year. That¡¯s kind of the moral of the story. Flip the page. It¡¯s 2025 Sox, and now we are ready to rock.¡±
¡°Every year new guys come in, guys leave, but the makeup of this team is maybe a little bit different,¡± said Benintendi, who launched a three-run homer during a five-run eighth inning. ¡°We have some guys who have been around, older guys who have been in situations at other places. This group seems pretty relaxed and laid back, likes to have a good time. It translates out there.¡±
For the first time in two years, that laid-back attitude has translated to the White Sox being over .500. The last time they hit that mark was on March 30, 2023 with a 3-2 victory over the Astros during the season opener in Houston -- the first game ever managed by Pedro Grifol. John Wick: Chapter 4 was the top grossing movie at that particular time.
There was a different vibe on this team dating back to SoxFest Live on Jan. 24-25, and it continued playing out from the start against the Angels. Sean Burke hurled six scoreless innings and retired the last 14 hitters he faced in the first Opening Day start for the club's No. 13 prospect.
But it wasn¡¯t as smooth as it seemed, with Burke having to deal with first-and-third situations in each of the first two innings. He struck out Jorge Soler swinging and got Tim Anderson looking to end the first.
¡°Just making quality pitches in the zone, getting ahead of guys,¡± said Burke, who fanned three and didn¡¯t issue a walk over 73 pitches. ¡°We had a good game plan going in against the lineup as a whole, and I did a pretty good job executing. Korey did a great job calling the game. So the combination of that was able to get [us] out of the situation."
¡°A lot of poise. He's under control at all times,¡± said manager Will Venable of Burke. ¡°He likes those moments where he has to find another gear to get him through that stuff. And he's got the stuff to do it. Just really fun to watch him go to work and fight through some adversity there.¡±
Austin Slater¡¯s home run sparked a three-run second inning off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi, with Miguel Vargas also delivering a two-out two-run double. Vargas, who dealt with a miserable stretch after coming from the Dodgers in a 2024 Trade Deadline deal, had two hits.
That miserable stretch is nothing but a distant memory.
Mike Clevinger pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the eighth by striking out Soler on a full-count elevated fastball after walking Mike Trout on nine pitches to load the bases. As a starter in 2024, Clevinger was limited to four starts due to a neck injury that led to surgery. Now, the right-hander is healthy and showing electric stuff.
Then, there¡¯s Venable, at the helm of this ship trying to get right, who enjoyed all the celebratory trappings of his first victory with the White Sox. He tipped his hat to his family in the stands after the last out, then came to the media scrum looking a bit disheveled, but in a happy way.
It¡¯s about the here and now for the White Sox and not about what happened before.
¡°We know what kind of team we can be,¡± Burke said. ¡°Just trying to go out every single day and just enjoy the game and play to the best of our abilities is what our motto is going to be going forward."
¡°Keep on stacking it up. We learned how to fight,¡± Lee said. ¡°Fans were great today. Hopefully we can continue to bring that out of them. Good times in Chicago. It¡¯s a win. It¡¯s nice to be in the 1-0 category rather than the 0-1.¡±