‘You always have stuff to improve’
Colás feels ‘very comfortable’ as he turns heads in camp
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Oscar Colás was itching to bat Saturday against the San Diego Padres.
“He probably asked me three or four times if I could get him an AB,” Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said Sunday morning. “He knew that if they brought a righty in I was going to pinch-hit (with) him because I communicate that early the days that some of these guys are off.
“As soon as they brought in that righty, I looked back and he already had his stuff on.”
Colás made the most of his plate appearance, blasting a long home run to right field against Drew Carlton in the ninth inning of the Sox’s 6-5 loss at Peoria Stadium. It was the first Cactus League homer of what has been a standout camp for the No. 2 prospect in the Sox organization.
“As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone,” Colás said through an interpreter Saturday.
He called the moment “special.” “I was just trying to feel comfortable in the batter’s box, trying to get into my rhythm,” Colás said. “I wasn’t looking for homers before, it just happened this time. But I’m feeling very comfortable in the batter’s box right now.”
It shows. Colás entered Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels at Camelback Ranch hitting .407, second among qualified Cactus League players and fifth in the majors. And he kept it up Sunday, hitting a solo homer to right-center in the first.
While Saturday’s homer went to right, the left-handed-hitting Colás is trying to use the entire field.
“That’s part of all the work I did during the offseason,” he said last week. “Trying to hit the ball to the opposite field. If they throw me inside, I’m going to keep my hands inside of the ball and pull the ball. I’m just going to take advantage of the whole field.”
He had 11 hits entering Sunday’s game, tied for sixth in the majors.
“I love the kid,” Sox second baseman Elvis Andrus recently said. “Such an amazing presence. It’s tough to have a presence when you haven’t even played in the big leagues. He knows how good he is but he doesn’t act like it. He comes