SAN DIEGO — Andrew Benintendi estimates that earlier this season he had “like five different stances.”
“(I would) switch it up when things aren’t going well,” the Chicago White Sox left fielder said earlier this week.
Benintendi landed on a toe tap.
“Sticking with it, it’s made my timing a lot more consistent,” he said. “Pretty much made it simpler and smoother. It’s repeatable.”
The results have also been fairly consistent.
Benintendi is tied for the team lead with 19 home runs heading into Friday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. He has a .273/.358/.553 slash line with seven doubles, 10 home runs, 26 RBIs and a .911 OPS in his last 37 games. By comparison, he slashed .206/.260/.328 with nine homers, 34 RBIs and a .588 OPS in his first 92 games last year.
On the season, Benintendi has a .226/.290/.394 slash line with 19 doubles, 19 home runs, 60 RBIs, 41 walks and 48 runs in 129 games.
“He’s been a little bit more consistent with his timing and his set up,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “He had been back and forth between toe tap and a leg kick. He’s been pretty consistent with the toe tap now.
“And too, it’s just getting healthy. He had been battling some injuries early on (including being on the injured list June 2-12 with left Achilles tendinitis). Guys have been banged up all year. But he finally seems like he’s in a good spot, strong and putting consistent at-bats together.”
Benintendi has had some timely hits the past week.
He had three hits, including a walk-off home run in the ninth inning, in a 7-6 victory against the Oakland Athletics on Sept. 14. The blast — the second walk-off home run of his career — ended the Sox’s franchise-record 16-game home losing streak.
Sizemore referred to the home run as “a momentum builder.”
“Those games, when you’re kind of back and forth and you lose it, it can kind of demoralize the guys,” he said. “When you win one, it keeps the energy up, it keeps the mood light and makes guys happier coming to the field.”
Momentum has been extremely rare for the Sox in 2024. But Benintendi’s home run did jumpstart a three-game winning streak, which matched the second-longest for the team this season.
Benintendi homered twice in the third game of that winning streak Monday against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif. He hit a two-run home run in the first and a solo home run in the seventh in the 8-4 victory.
He is one home run shy of matching his career high of 20, which he set in 2017 with the Boston Red Sox.
“Feel like I’ve been able to get my pitch and not foul it off,” Benintendi said. “Put good swings on the ball and try to hit it hard. That’s always nice when it finds grass or the seats.”
Benintendi put the Sox ahead — momentarily — in the 11th inning Wednesday against the Angels with a two-out RBI single. The Angels eventually rallied to beat the Sox 4-3 in 13 innings.
It was the 117th loss of the year for the Sox, tied for the third-most in a season during Major League Baseball’s modern era with the 1916 Philadelphia A’s (36-117). The Sox entered Friday three shy of matching the modern-day record for most losses in a season of 120 held by the 1962 New York Mets.
Benintendi saw several takeaways for the club during the winning streak to lean on going forward.
“It seems we’ve been able to get a lead early and hold on to it throughout the game and adding on throughout the game,” he said. “It’s been something we haven’t done too much of this year.
“Situational hitting has been better. Seems like the past few games the strikeouts have gone down with guys in scoring position, just trying to put the ball in play to make the defense make the play.”
Benintendi is also keeping in mind what’s been working for him at the plate as the end of the season nears.
“There are things I’ve been taking note of and trying to keep it fresh in my mind for whenever I start hitting in the offseason,” he said. “You think throughout the season there’s a lot of things that go through your mind. You tend to forget things at times. Just trying to take away a few key points and remember it when I start hitting again this offseason.”
