Colson Montgomery of White Sox trying to focus on positives, not strikeout record

CHICAGO (AP) — Colson Montgomery wants to focus on his accomplishments, not on breaking the season strikeout record for batters.

In his second major league season, the 24-year-old Chicago White Sox infielder struck out for the 224th time Friday, one more than Mark Reynolds’ total with Arizona in 2009. Montgomery fanned three more times over the weekend, finishing with 227 K’s in 568 at-bats and 638 plate appearances for the year.

“It’s definitely something you don’t want your name to be a part of of,” Montgomery said Sunday. “But at the end of the day, you can’t be looking so much at the negative stuff. I’ve looked at a lot of the stuff we’ve all done this year and me personally, and I felt like it’s been a lot of positives.

Montgomery finished the regular season with a .197 average, 31 homers and 87 RBIs for the White Sox, who go to Houston for a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday.

“For me to really go into the dumps about what just happened and for me to be so upset about it and not try to get better in the position we’re at at as a team right now, I feel would be selfish,” he said. “It’s just one of those things like if you go up to the plate, you know, you’re feeling tense and stuff, you know you’re probably going to not really do what you want to do. So recently, I’ve been going up there trying to be as a loose as I can, simplify my plans as much as I can.”

He ended the season in a 6-for-77 slide.

“If you’re swinging at good pitches, you’re giving yourself a chances, you know, to be able to do something productive and get some type of result,” Montgomery said. “So that’s kind of like in my work and my routine. Swing-decision stuff and just trying to get in that competitive mindset.

“I think it’s just continuing to do what got me here,” Montgomery added. “There’s some things in the cage that we’ve been doing and a lot of it is is just kind of go out there and, you know, just try to be open-minded and compete.”

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