HOUSTON -- It was the bottom of the eighth inning, Houston had runners on first and second with two outs, and the White Sox were holding on to a three-run lead in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series at Daikin Park.
Yainer Diaz and his dangerous power potential were at the plate representing the game-tying run, while Grant Taylor was on the mound trying to secure the White Sox first playoff win since 2021. Taylor is the most dominant reliever the White Sox have and, in his second Major League season, might just be one of the most dominant relievers in the game.
Their battle went for six pitches before Diaz took a called third strike on the seventh pitch of the at-bat. So, what did the right-hander throw to escape the potential series-altering jam?
“I’m going to be honest. I don’t even know what I threw,” Taylor said. “Was it a curveball?”
Indeed it was a curveball. It also was the first one he threw after five fastballs.
“Kind of throwing everything to him at that point,” Taylor continued. “[In a] 3-2 [count], throwing him a few different options ... and froze him for a strikeout.”
Taylor was the last of five pitchers to work in Chicago’s bullpen day during a 6-3 win over the Astros. He worked 2 1/3 innings, tossing a career-high 54 pitches and striking out five en route to pushing the South Siders one win away from their first playoff series win since ‘05.
After such a high pitch count in a high-leverage situation, it would be natural for Taylor to feel sore or count himself out of Wednesday’s potential series clincher. Neither of those scenarios were presented as true statements postgame.
“Ideally, tomorrow,” said Taylor of when he could pitch next. “I’m going to give this team everything I’ve got. They have given me everything I got.
“I feel good right now. … I could tell that I probably was reaching more than I had done this year. Just kind of praying to God. 'I’m going to give you everything I got if you give me everything you got.' After every pitch, thanking him for the opportunity. Relying on him for strength. He got me through it.”
After Taylor’s second up, ending with the Diaz strikeout, manager Will Venable and the coaching staff came to Taylor asking him if he was good. He was ready to give them everything he had.
“Heroics, really. That's more than we’ve pushed Grant,” Venable said. “It’s 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 seventh to clean up that inning and make sure that we're in a good spot there, and [he] shut things down with a runner at second base.”
“He was on the gas the whole time,” said White Sox catcher Kyle Teel of Taylor. “Really good from him.”
Rookie Hagen Smith started for the White Sox, covering three scoreless innings, followed by Jordan Hicks, Sean Newcomb and fellow rookie David Sandlin. It could have been a somewhat daunting task for Teel behind the plate, but his teammates made it less of an issue.
“They made my life really easy back there. They hit their spots,” Teel said. “Attacking the zone. I felt like I could have been catching with a blindfold on. They were hitting my glove.”
“It was cool just to get the opportunity to go out there and do that,” Smith said. “Just try to go out there and compete the best I can for the team and give us the best chance to win.”
Taylor giving 54 pitches gave the White Sox the best chance to win. He hopes to have a similar effect throughout the postseason.
“Go out and play our ball. Do the same thing we’re doing all year,” Taylor said. “Win this series, win the next one, win the next one and hopefully we are in the World Series with the opportunity to do something really cool.”