It might not have been the perfect performance he hoped for, but Noah Schultz pushed through a rough first frame of his major league debut to finish his 4 1/3-inning outing strongly, despite the White Sox (6 -11) dropping the first game of the series to the Rays (9-7), 8-5.
Schultz needed 33 pitches to get through the first, which could have led to a quick exit. The lanky southpaw was able to work around Yandy Díaz with no problem to start the game, but walked the next two batters for quick trouble.
The first MLB hit surrendered by Schultz was a double to left field by Ryan Vilade to drive in the first run for Tampa Bay. A safety squeeze bunt from Ben Williamson caused a whole bunch of chaos, as Noah rushed his throw home rather than getting the second out at first and letting the run score, and the Rays added a third run to the board due to Schultz’s error.
First-game jitters were clearly coming into play, but Schultz was able to settle himself down and strike out Jonny DeLuca to get out of the inning. The rest of his night went more smoothly, though he allowed one more run in the top of the third; Williamson struck again, drilling an RBI double out to left for Tampa’s fourth run of the game. Schultz did facilitate a 1-2-3 inning in the second, and worked through the fourth just fine before striking out the last batter he faced.
Noah tallied four strikeouts alongside four walks, and he averaged a 32% called strike plus whiff rate (CSW%). His fastball (37% CSW%) was most effective, averaging 96 mph with three strikeouts and batters whiffing five of nine times. The throwing error on the bunt was definitely a learning experience, but overall Schultz’s fastball velocity and pitch movement along with the way he was able to power through his nerves after the first inning was definitely encouraging.
It took a few stanzas for the bats to wake up, but the White Sox offense did cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the third. Miguel Vargas was robbed on a diving play from Chandler Simpson to start the inning, but Munetaka Murakami walked for his second time of the night, and Chase Meidroth ended up on first after catcher’s interference (his back foot essentially stepped on the catcher Nick Fortes’ foot in the batter’s box).
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, baseball is the gift that keeps on giving:
Just a few minutes after I got through complaining about the fact that manager Will Venable decided to bat Everson Pereira in the cleanup spot, Pereira came up with two runners on and ripped a three-run homer out to left to make it 4-3, Tampa Bay. I believe the exact phrase I used was “automatic out,” and I will happily eat my words for a home run any day of the week:
Spoiler alert: The White Sox did not come remotely close to scoring again until they were down to their last out in the bottom of the ninth, but they once again fell short in their rally. In fact, they only mustered five hits all night and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position while leaving nine runners on base. Does it really matter that your offense stinks while your bullpen isn’t doing anything to help itself, either? I mean, yes, it does, but with the White Sox you can’t really have your cake and eat it too; precisely why their pitching has been phenomenal lately while their offense is incapable of scoring runs.
Lucas Sims was first out of the pen for the Good Guys (1 1/3 innings), and he was unable to prevent additional runs from scoring as two more were tacked on, thanks to three hits with one walk and one strikeout. Lefthander Brandon Eisert was next in line, and his stat line was unfortunately a carbon copy of Sims’, so the Rays expanded their lead to five, 8-3.
Finally the pitching calmed down a bit with Jordan Hicks in the eighth — something I probably never thought I’d write — and he was able to get out of the inning without anyone scoring despite giving up two hits, the first of the South Side pitching staff accomplish the feat. Bryan Hudson, the power forward (6´8´´) to Schultz’s center (6´10´´) was solid for the top of the ninth (one hit and one strikeout), also preventing any further runs from scoring.
Things did briefly get a little interesting for the South Siders in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs. Vargas had walked with one out, and Mune was the last hope for the Sox after Meidroth popped out. Murakami blasted his fifth homer of the season to cut the Tampa lead to three, 8-5.
Attempting to re-ignite a rally, Tanner Murray singled to extend the inning at least one more batter. Working to a full count, it was starting to feel like Edgar might get on so that Colson Montgomery would come up to bat as the tying run, but that fleeting hope and excitement was extinguished when Quero flew out to center to end the game.
