White Sox’ veteran Martin Maldonado ‘trusting’ process while battling awful start

PHILADELPHIA — Martin Maldonado owned a .205/.281/.346 career hitting line through Thursday, so offense has not not the catcher’s calling card during his 14-year career. But the .061/.088/.091 hitting line he took into his 14th game with the White Sox is cringe-worthy.

Even though Korey Lee has hit better and received effusive praise from manager Pedro Grifol for his catching skills, Grifol is trusting the 37-year-old veteran’s handling of pitchers and signal calling, staying with Maldonado and once again pairing him with Garrett Crochet in the left-hander’s fifth – and worst — start of the season Friday against the Phillies.

Crochet gave up three homers, two to Alec Bohm worth six runs, and one to Whit Merrifield in three-plus innings.

“One thing I learned in my career, whether you are going good or not, you have to keep doing what you do, trust in what you do and always keep working,” Maldonado said before the game. “This game is hard, everybody knows that. Sometimes one pitch changes your career. It can change your season. That’s where we’re at right now. To do whatever I need to do to have success on the field.”

Maldonado said he knows what his numbers say, but said he’s seeing the ball well. So there’s that.

“Not getting the results but that’s part of the game,” he said. “I put my work in day in and day out, trying to see more video, all those things, working with the hitting coaches and trying to get where I need to be.”

Behind the plate, Maldonado is catching on one knee at times this season, a new wrinkle that has made some inroads on framing numbers that ranked at or near the bottom of baseball last season. Catching coach Sal Butera expects those strides, however small, to maintain or get better over a full season.

“He’s a fantastic game caller,” Butera said. “Defensively he still has great attributes. He has soft hands, has a good arm and he moves pretty good behind the plate.

“He was brought up in the old school, catching and holding the ball. Nowadays it’s about movement and deceiving the umpire. The last couple of years haven’t been great for him but this year he has made great strides.”

Back in the saddle

After serving up a go-ahead home run to Salvador Perez Wednesday in Chicago that may have cost the Sox a doubleheader sweep, Michael Kopech wanted to pitch in Game 2 to “get the bad taste out of my mouth and have success again. That’s parof the job.”

But Kopech had to wait till this weekend after Thursday’s off day.

Throwing a fastball to Perez in that spot wasn’t a bad choice of a pitch, Kopech said – he’s had a lot of success with his heater – but he got too much of the plate and it cost him.

“I was getting ahead, he was getting his aggressive swing off and it worked in his favor,” Kopech said. “I can’t groove a fastball with a one run lead and man on base.”

This and that

Eloy Jimenez batted second for the 11th time in his career. It could be a one-time thing or temporary, Grifol said.

“The No. 1 reason is to get him seeing as many pitches as possible, turn the lineup around, get him that fifth at-bat, see if we can get him going,” Grifol said. “He’s a big part of this lineup.”

*John Brebbia (calf strain) started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte Friday. The goal is to return from the IL by the series at Minnesota early next week.

*Danny Mendick had six home runs for Charlotte through Thursday.