This game had three highlights:
- Erick Fedde’s start.
- Tanner Murray’s first major league hit.
- It was over in an hour and 56 minutes.
Fedde pitched a fine game today. Michael Wacha pitched a better one.
Fedde made one mistake, starting the game after a short rain delay with a get-me-over first pitch to settle in, a pitch Maikel García deposited 412 feet away. Well, two mistakes, the other being a case of chronic White Sox pitcher inefficiency that made him leave the game after five innings and 85 pitches, 53 of them strikes.
Part of the inefficiency came in the second inning, when a walk, an infield
single and a hit batter loaded the bases, but García grounded out to end the only time the Royals had a runner in scoring position against him. Otherwise, Fedde walked no one else and only gave up one more hit.
Small problem, though — if Fedde was lights barely visible, Wacha was lights fully out. In the first inning, he threw 11 pitches, all of them strikes, and then tossed six more strikes to start the second. He was as efficient as Fedde wasn’t, cruising through eight innings on just 88 pitches, 63 of them strikes.
Wacha did allow the Sox offense four hits, doubles to Andrew Benintendi (raising his average to .184) and Lenyn Sosa (raising his to .179) and singles to Reese McGuire (now hitting a hearty .125) and Murray, who got his first-ever big league hit on a grounder up the middle:
And the Sox only struck out eight times in the game, so that’s some form of progress.
Sean Newcomb did a nifty six-up, six-down in relief, but then the Royals added a run off Jordan Hicks in the eighth on a García double and two fly balls. That was totally unnecessary against the Sox, who now have scored eight runs in their last six games, with seven straight games of three runs or fewer and 11 such games of the 15 this year.
The White Sox are now 5-10 on the young year — a 54-win pace, in case you’re keeping track. The finale in KC is at 1:10 p.m. Central tomorrow, with the Sox going with the famous “undecided” (as opposed to the equally famous TBA or TBD), as it would be Shane Smith’s turn in the rotation and Smith is enjoying Charlotte.
