ATLANTA — Word around the visitors’ clubhouse before the White Sox opened a daunting three-game series with the Braves was “reset.”
Word from manager Pedro Grifol on -Saturday was “focus.” And attention to detail. He hasn’t seen enough of it from a team with the fourth-worst record in baseball going into its game Saturday night against the Braves, the team with the best.
“We’re not as detailed as I want to be,” Grifol said before the Sox’ 6-5 victory. “We’re not as focused as I want to be. Those are things that we have to get better at. Pretty simple. That starts with me. I’m responsible for that.”
Grifol was asked if he has seen the attention to detail he wants from his players.
“No, no, no, no,” the first-year manager said. “We have to get better at that. That’s something we’ve spoken about individually. I have conversations with these guys. I don’t like doing too much team stuff. I do have a lot of individual conversations on things we need to get better at. I have a lot of meetings with our coaches on things we need to address.”
The Sox (39-55) then went out and had one of their better wins of the season, a triumph over Spencer Strider and the Braves, owners of the best record (61-30) in baseball. It followed a 9-0 clunker in the first game after the All-Star break.
“It was a good win for us,” said Sox starter Lance Lynn, who said he understood Grifol’s message.
“We have to win or we’re out of it. It’s time to lock the [expletive] in. There’s really no other way to say it.”
When general manager Rick Hahn introduced Grifol as the replacement for Tony La Russa on Nov. 4, he said the Sox were “taking a major step to putting ourselves back on track towards the trajectory we were on in previous seasons following last season’s [81-81] disappointment.”
He described Grifol, the Royals’ bench coach the previous three seasons, as “a renowned communicator and modern baseball mind who is seeking to build a cohesive and inclusive clubhouse environment and one where attention to detail and accountability will be priorities.”
Grifol pledged the Sox would be fundamentally sound, control the strike zone on both sides of the ball and earn the trust of fans. But Sox hitters’ chase rate is the second-worst behind the Tigers, and their walk rate is last. Defense was stressed during spring training, but the Sox are near the bottom of most runs-saved metrics.
The Sox have as many or more hitters and pitchers meetings than anyone. Grifol meets with his coaches all the time. He said improvement must come on the field and -before the game.
“We’ve got to continue to address [attention to detail and focus],” Grifol said. “We all have to hold each other accountable for it.
“I was proud of the way we played tonight. Beat a damn good pitcher, maybe the best in the game. They were detailed, and they played to win today.
The players talked “reset” on the first day back from the break.
“It’s not as if it’s an unclimbable mountain we have to scale,” said closer Liam Hendriks, who is on the injured list. “But it’s going to be a lot of hard work coming back and being able to get into this.”
Jake Burger’s 20th home run of the season against Strider (10 strikeouts, no walks but five runs allowed in six innings) broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth, and Andrew Benintendi’s third RBI hit in the seventh made it 6-4.
Ronald Acuna Jr.’s homer leading off the ninth against Kendall Graveman made it 6-5. With runners on the corners, Graveman got Sean Murphy to hit into a broken-bat double play. The Sox have a chance to win the series with Dylan Cease pitching Sunday.
