Foster & Heuer: Chicago's unheralded relief combination
Going into this season, the Chicago White Sox knew they had a pretty solid bullpen, led by veteran closer Alex Colomé, Evan Marshall and Aaron Bummer at the back end of the bullpen and second southpaw Jace Fry being another solid option.
It was just a matter of figuring out the rest of the bullpen. The White Sox could have dreamed about it, but never thought they would get not only one but two great contributions from rookies.
And somewhat unlikely rookies, at that. Matt Foster and Codi Heuer have showed up in wins against the rival in the first two games of this series, continuing the great contributions they have brought to the team all year long. Foster threw two-thirds of an inning of scoreless baseball to finish off the White Sox 6-2 victory on Tuesday, while on Monday night Heuer pitched a scoreless inning that saw two hits and two walks. But Heuer also got a key strikeout of Max Kepler swinging on a sinker, helping the White Sox keep the score tied at 1-1 in the sixth inning of a game they eventually won, 3-1.
Both Foster and Heuer are among the American League leaders in several relief categories. Foster being 10th in relief ERA, and tied for second in relief wins.
STATS.com
Heuer is tied for 15th in relief ERA, fifth in batting average allowed, and tied for fifth in holds.
STATS.com
It will be interesting to see how the White Sox use these two rookies not only in the stretch run and the playoffs. With Fry just recently returning from the injured list and Bummer still on the IL and perhaps not coming back in 2020, you would figure both Foster and Heuer will continue to be big parts of this 2020 relief core moving forward. In fact Foster’s fastball, change and slider combination, helping him strike out 25 batters in 21 ⅓ innings, could very well be the makeup of a future closer.