Tim Anderson sat in the visiting dugout at Coors Field more than three hours before the Chicago White Sox began a series against the Colorado Rockies.
The shortstop had just completed fielding drills with infield coach Eddie Rodríguez. But he wouldn’t be participating in Friday’s game as he began serving a five-game suspension.
Reflecting on the Aug. 5 brawl with the Cleveland Guardians that led to the suspension, Anderson said “my emotion got the best of me.”
“That happens,” Anderson said. “You go through things to get to the other thing. Just understanding what’s going on, understanding what’s happening, really trying to stay focused and stay the course and never forget what the mission is.
“Just continue to keep working and understand … I have to be better. I will be better. Just continue to keep working and I won’t take anything for granted. Just continue to keep trying to better myself as a whole on and off the field. And just keep pushing.”
Anderson on Friday discussed the incident, which began after words were exchanged with Guardians third baseman José Ramírez, and aftermath for the first time with reporters. The suspension is a reduction of one game after the initial Major League Baseball ruling on Aug. 7 and an appeal by Anderson.
Anderson released a statement Thursday on Instagram, apologizing to the “entire White Sox organization, my teammates, manager and coaches and to the fans for my part in the altercation which took place in Cleveland.”
“I just wanted to say what I believe and hopefully say it well with whoever received it,” Anderson said of the statement on Friday. “But I definitely wanted to be real about it, be authentic about it. Accountability. Apologize. A little bit of everything. The biggest thing was really just be real with it.”
Anderson’s statement alluded to not wanting to “get into the things that were said to me by Cleveland players both Friday night and Saturday.” He declined to elaborate Friday.
“We’re just going to continue to keep moving forward and not really try to bring anything up or really be so detailed on what really went on,” he said. “All we can continue to do is keep moving on and continue to try to keep being better and staying focused and keep trying to accomplish the mission that I’m on.”
It’s been a tough season for Anderson and the Sox. The two-time All-Star, who has had a batting average of at least .301 in each of the past four seasons, is slashing .238/.285/.284 with one home run and 21 RBIs in 92 games during a year in which he missed a good portion of April with a left knee sprain.
“He is a good hitter, it’s just not happening right now,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “You don’t just lose that from one day to the next. What he’s done, there’s plenty of sample size for me to sit here and say he is a good hitter, not he ‘was’ a good hitter.
“You don’t do what he’s done for four and a half, five years and then have an off year and all of a sudden you were a good hitter at that age (30). He has to make adjustments he needs to make, feel the mechanics in his swing that he wants and have a little success and run with it again.”
Grifol said to “stop correlating the year he’s had with that fight.”
“It was a base hit turned into a double (by Ramírez), it was a hard slide, a pretty hard tag, he straddled Ramírez, Ramírez hit him in the leg, he got up and Ramírez pointed his finger right in his face,” Grifol said. “Ninety percent of the time there will be a fight or at least a couple pushes. But I don’t see it that way where that happened because of the year Timmy has had.”
Anderson described the last couple of weeks as “different.”
“It’s a lot of noise and just trying to get to a spot where you block out the noise,” Anderson said. “That has been a tough spot. But just continue to be me. And continue to just understand it’s all working out for the good and really believing in that and trusting in that and keep going.”
Anderson’s focus is to “get back to the type of player that I am, the type of player that I have been.”
“Continue to keep working, get back in the lab and get the body right and continue to work on my swing and continue to come to work and try to be the best that I can be each day, every day,” he said.
“If you ain’t going through anything, then you’re not growing. I just understand that it is a lot, but it has to be working toward something great. Being at a point like this. I’m just going to keep going, keep hustling, keep working and see where it leads me. Hopefully it’s somewhere near greatness.”
Eloy Jiménez goes on the paternity list
The Sox placed Jiménez on the paternity list and recalled infielder Lenyn Sosa from Triple-A Charlotte. Grifol said Jiménez will miss the series and he “should be ready to go Monday” when the Sox return home to play the Seattle Mariners.
Sosa has a .132 average (9-for-68) with three doubles, one homer and three RBIs in 22 games during two stints with the Sox this season.
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