Short of suffering an injury, Shane Smith’s final tuneup before taking the ball on Opening Day in Milwaukee started out almost unimaginably shambolic.
In bottom of the first, Smith took 24 pitches, and just 11 strikes, to record one out. He hit the first two batters of the game, sandwiched around a stolen base. A walk packed the sacks, although Smith rebounded for a strikeout of Yoán Moncada. But the White Sox ace was punished for his misdeeds by Josh Lowe and a two-run single, bouncing Smith from
the frame. (Garrett Schoenle came on in a rush and through a combination of walk-single dropped two more earned runs on Smith’s tab.)
The second inning, through the do-over magic of the Cactus League, saw Smith back on the mound once more. And that frame started with another gasp, as Ryan Galanie’s flub at first base allowed the leadoff man on via error, followed by another stolen base and a Yolmer Sánchez walk. Thankfully from there, Smith settled down and struck out the next three Angels — including Moncada for the second time. But through two innings of all or nothing (free passes, loud outs, strikeouts), Smith stood at 25 strikes of 48 pitches.
In the third, Smith got two quick outs including a fifth K, but then dropped another Angel with a hit batsman, and a third walk. The righty escaped any damage, but left at a 50-50 ball-strike split over 64 pitches.
Finally, Smith’s BEST inning of the contest saw two quick outs, an unfortunate double into the left field corner from Trey Mancini, and an incredibly fortunate screaming meemie for an out in center; Jake Munroe’s liner had a .660 XBA, but Jarred Kelenic’s sure glove in center prevented a fifth Angels run. All told, Smith threw only 39 strikes in a 3 2/3-inning effort that took 73 pitches. Next Thursday might be quite the adventure, friends.
Otherwise, the game was quiet till late, when the Good Guys rallied in the eighth and ninth, only to fall just short. Tanner Murray singled to lead off the eighth, stepped aside for Kyle Lodise as a pinch-runner, and an Anthony DiPino single put Sox on the corners with none out. Darren Baker lined out to Munroe third, but Jake got greedy and tried to double up DiPino at first, with the resulting throwing error scoring Lodise.
In the ninth, Alec Makarewicz homered to cut the Angels lead to 4-2, and a Michael Turner single and Bryce Eblin walk kept the rally going. One out later, Lodise singled in Turner and put the tying run on second base. But DiPino’s 106.8 mph crush of an Jakob Guardado changeup was shot straight to short, where ol’ wacky pal Sánchez lit a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
Four solid innings from the relief corps (Jordan Hicks, Jordan Leasure, Chris Murphy, Tyler Gilbert) and the late comeback from the kiddie corps were just about the only takeaways to smile about this afternoon. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for a better outing from Smith next time, when it finally counts.
