Venable Continues Pushing The Right Buttons For The Chicago White Sox

Benintendi's go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning was the first of his career and made him just the second visiting player in Yankee Stadium history, old or new, to hit a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning or later. The only other player to do it was former White Sox pitcher Tommy Byrne back in 1953.

In the four games Venable has used an opener ahead of Burke, the right-hander has posted a 1.80 ERA while holding opponents to a .174 batting average. Without an opener in traditional starts, his ERA jumps to 4.82 with opponents hitting .253.

The White Sox are 14-6 in one-run games this season, a massive turnaround from last year when they posted just a 29% winning percentage in one-run games. Much of that improvement has been credited to Will Venable's in-game decision-making.

Venable currently ranks 12th in MLB in in-game decision success rate, which measures the impact of bullpen and pinch-hitting moves on the team's win probability. Of the 30 MLB managers, only half have a positive success rate in that category.

The White Sox lead all of MLB with five pinch-hit home runs this season. Only Tigers manager AJ Hinch has used pinch-hitters at a higher rate than Venable, but Chicago has been far more productive with those at-bats.