The White Sox players held a players meeting on Thursday morning to discuss "having fun once they get on the field for this final month," according to Scott Merkin.
The team had a similar "leadership meeting" in mid-August between "eight to ten" players (all veterans). The meeting focused on uplifting the clubhouse with a more positive attitude.
"Coming out of that meeting, it was just, 'Look, we need to we need to stay positive with not only ourselves but everybody else around and control what you can control,'" closer Liam Hendriks said to NBC Sports Chicago's David Kaplan. "I'm not going to be out here trying to control the offense. And the offense isn't going to be trying to control the way I pitch."
The initial meeting was inspired by Johnny Cueto's public comments about the team not playing with a "fire" within them. After the premiere meeting, the Sox went on a five-game winning streak.
The team recently snapped a five-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 4-2 win over the Royals. They followed the win with another on Thursday, winning 7-1 at home against the Royals to take the series.
The Sox are under more stress than usual after news broke on Tuesday of Tony La Russa needing to fly to Arizona to visit the Mayo Clinic about a heart issue. La Russa missed Tuesday's game and hasn't been back to manage since. Bench coach Miguel Cairo has filled in since La Russa's departure.
The club will head into a three-game, weekend series against the Minnesota Twins on Friday. The Sox are one game under .500 (65-66) and sit 4.5 games back on the division-leading Cleveland Guardians. They are also 1.5 games behind the Twins.