The White Sox have nothing to lose after taking a flier on Mike Olt at third base.
Olt, a 27-year-old former first round draft choice, has everything to gain as he tries to revive his career after the Sox claimed him on waivers from the Cubs on Sept. 5.
His 426-foot two-run home run in the White Sox’ 9-4 win over the Oakland A’s Wednesday not only made him the first player to homer for the Sox and Cubs in the same season, it showed why he might be worth a thorough September look.
The Sox want to see if Olt can scrounge up some more at a position which calls for some pop, and they’ve given him a chance to play almost every day.
“You want to make the most of it,’’ Olt said. “I’m not putting extra pressure on myself. I’m really just excited to be playing again, playing at this level and I’m going to go from there and try to finish strong.’’
The Sox’ diminishing home run numbers are drawing comparisons to 1992, when they hit 110. They have 125, 13th in the American League, after Jose Abreu (his 29th), Carlos Sanchez (fourth) and Olt (first) went deep against Cody Martin.
Olt made two errors on one play Tuesday when he couldn’t get a grip to make a throw, then rushed it and threw it away, but manager Robin Ventura says he likes how Olt moves around the bag and plays the position. He made a nice barehand play in the eighth inning Wednesday.
Olt certainly remembers the homer with the Cubs, against the Rockies’ Kyle Kendrick April 11 at Colorado. He was hit by an Adam Ottavino pitch in the same game and suffered a hairline fracture in his right wrist.
“Yeah, I can’t really forget that day,’’ he said. “I remember it pretty well.’’
Old said it was “cool” to be the first to homer for the Cubs and Sox in the same year.
“I’m surprise that it hasn’t happened. I guess not a lot of guys get traded over here from the Cubs or the opposite. It was definitely something I’ll be able to tell my kids about down the road.’’
The road to a job with the Sox won’t be blocked by Kris Bryant, so that’s a plus.
“Oh, definitely,’’ Olt said. “It’s going to be some motivation for the offseason and I’m going to try to get myself in a great position to come into spring and hopefully win a job.’’
The Sox (69-75), who’ve won eight of their last 13 games, got back to winning after a 17-6 loss.
In Tuesday’s blowout loss, Jeff Samardzija gave up 10 runs in three-plus innings, Daniel Webb allowed six runs while retiring one batter, two position players had to pitch and Adam Eaton was thrown out easily at second base after he led off the ninth with a single to center. After the game, manager Robin Ventura questioned Eaton’s decision with the team down 11 runs.
“It’s in the past. We are trying to move forward,’’ Eaton said Wednesday.
Eaton said that he “goofed up” but wondered why it was still an issue the next day.
“Why are we going to shine a light on that when we were down how many runs at that point?’’ he said. “I’m trying to make something happen. I saw how the play was coming about. I saw [A’s center fielder Sam Fuld] kind of backhand it and kind of slow down.’’
The Sox’ effort Wednesday was considerably cleaner, including a quality start by right-hander Erik Johnson, who gave up three runs over six innings.
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