White Sox rookie catcher Seby Zavala makes baseball history

Seby Zavala was the White Sox’s 12th-round pick in the 2015 draft out of San Diego State. It took until 2019 before the catcher made his major league debut, at the age of 25, and in that cup of coffee the catcher went 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts.

A strong hitter through the low minor leagues, with as many as 21 homers between two levels of A-ball in 2017 to earn a trip to that year’s Arizona Fall League, Zavala sputtered upon reaching the higher strata of pro ball. He did hit 20 homers for Triple-A Charlotte in 2019, but batted .222 with a .296 on-base percentage.

Even this season, Zavala wasn’t swinging a particularly big stick for the Knights, batting .178/.291/.339 with five homers in 33 games with Charlotte. In 12 games for the White Sox prior to Saturday, he’d gone 4-for-28 with two doubles and 13 strikeouts.

Well, now Zavala has three homers in the big leagues, after taking Triston McKenzie, Bryan Shaw, and James Karinchak deep into the Chicago night on Saturday and becoming the first player ever to open his major league dinger account with a hat trick. To make the night even more magical, the second shot of the game was a grand slam.

The White Sox lost to Cleveland, 12-11, continuing an absolutely bizarre stretch in the American League Central, as Wednesday in Minneapolis, the Twins hit seven homers off Detroit, the Tigers didn’t hit any, and Detroit won, 17-14.

It might be worth keeping an eye on the Royals, but then again, that might not be such good advice, either, given that Kansas City has lost 49 of its last 78 games since getting off to an exciting start to the season that saw them atop the Central at the start of May.

“Eugénie Le Sommer” is how you say “Allen Iverson.”

Racing Louisville defender Erin Simon made the bold decision not to retire on the spot after Le Sommer’s opening goal for OL Reign, which meant that she had a better view than anyone for Le Sommer’s second goal, chasing in vain as the 32-year-old from France made it a 2-0 game, which held up as the final score.