Will Venable Keeps Making the Same Mistake With the White Sox Bullpen
Sam Antonacci's late heroics bailed the White Sox out on Monday night, but they shouldn't distract from Will Venable's continued reliance on Seranthony Dominguez in save situations.
Video Transcript
Sam Phelan here with the White Sox Roundtable.
The White Sox won in walk-off fashion on Monday night.
It was a huge game, and it was huge heroics from Sam Antonacci.
His walk-off single gave the White Sox the win over the Cleveland Guardians in a, a big game, trying to rub off some of that bad taste from a miserable road trip, a miserable sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.
so much went wrong for the White Sox, and for a while, it seemed like history was going to repeat itself.
So while Antonacci's hit with two outs and two on won the White Sox the game and it bailed the White Sox out, it should not distract from Will Venable, his continued reliance on Sir Anthony Dominguez in save situations, and the issue that the White Sox are facing late in games right here.
entering Monday, seven of the next 13 games for the White Sox were set to be played against Cleveland.
They cannot afford to lose these games, especially when they get big pitching performances, and Anthony Kay did step up for that challenge.
He took the ball for the Sox, did six scoreless innings, allowed three hits, striking out eight.
Randall Grichuk had a pinch-hit home run to give the White Sox a three-nothing lead.
Grant Taylor then allowed three runs.
The White Sox took the lead back, and once again, Dominguez blew the save.
now, look, I was quick to blame Will Venable.
A lot of Sox fans have been, but what's he supposed to do?
It's Grant Taylor, Sir Anthony Dominguez, both of them gave up runs.
It doesn't really matter where they pitch, right?
Wrong.
Taylor clearly didn't have his command or his best stuff on Sunday afternoon.
A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that Will Venable didn't pitch him for a full week, then threw him into a game where he was clearly rusty.
Yet that, too, is beside the point.
The numbers do not lie for either Grant Taylor or Sir Anthony Dominguez.
how they perform in save situations tells you what the White Sox should be doing at closer, and yet they continue to ignore it.
dating back to May 10th, Sir Anthony Dominguez has been placed in seven save situations.
He's allowed nine runs, eight earned, 12 hits, five walks over six and a third.
That's an 11.37 ERA.
It's a 2.79 WHIP.
This is the man that Will Venable keeps turning to with the game on the line, one-run games, back-to-back days, allowing him to keep blowing games.
The writing is on the wall, and before Dominguez had even blown a game on Monday, he had a 6.06 ERA in 18 save situations during the 2026 season.
In non-save situations, an 0.77 ERA with an 0.69 WHIP over 12 appearances.
Grant Taylor has been, like, the exact opposite.
Coming into Monday, his ERA in, in non-save situations, a very pedestrian 3.63.
But in the eight save situations the White Sox have used him in, a 0.87 ERA with 18 strikeouts and one walk.
This is a thing that goes beyond just 2026 as well.
It's a thing for Sir Anthony Dominguez in his entire career.
His ERA in the ninth inning year by year, 5.60, five, 4.19, 6.75.
His ERA in the eighth inning, 2.84, 2.18, 1.56, four.
It's over a full run higher when he's in the ninth.
Over the stretch of his career, the walks go up, the earned runs go up, the home runs go up, the WHIP goes up when Dominguez is pitching in the ninth inning.
It seems pretty self-explanatory.
Will Venable and the White Sox need to start going to Grant Taylor.
They haven't done it up to this point.
That is what I think is really concerning, is that this isn't some new issue.
We've seen this all year, and yet they seem hell-bent on pitching Sir Anthony Dominguez with the game on the line.
But if the White Sox have any chance of winning the AL Central, they need their bullpen to lock in.
They need to win some of these games when they get great pitching performances like they did from Davis Martin on Sunday and Anthony Kay on Monday.
And right now, the bullpen is not allowing them to do that, and a big portion of that blame falls on the manager for how he's misusing his personnel.
