The Chicago White Sox are showing signs of life after last season’s historic collapse. Their starting pitchers nearly made it into the record books Tuesday with an impressive streak of scoreless innings to begin the year.
Shane Smith pitched 5 ⅔ solid innings against the Minnesota Twins in his major league debut, allowing just two runs. Those runs snapped Chicago’s remarkable streak of 28 ⅔ consecutive innings without their starting pitchers giving up an earned run.
The White Sox came up just short of making history.
They’ll remain one of just four teams since MLB’s integration to begin a season with four five-plus inning starts without allowing any earned runs. The other teams? The 2019 Toronto Blue Jays, 2013 San Francisco Giants, and 1976 Milwaukee Brewers.
But don’t get too excited about what this means for their season. None of those other teams found much success – the Blue Jays and Brewers both won fewer than 70 games, while the Giants finished with just 76 wins.
Smith, only 24 years old, joined the White Sox as the top pick in last winter’s Rule 5 Draft from the Brewers. He looked promising in his debut, striking out three batters while walking four and allowing just two hits over 73 pitches.
His fastball was impressive, averaging nearly 95 mph.
He generated 11 swinging strikes overall, with four coming on his fastball and three on his changeup.
Manager Will Venable pulled Smith with two runners on base, bringing in reliever Penn Murfee. That’s when things fell apart.
Murfee couldn’t record a single out. He allowed both of Smith’s runners to score, then gave up three more runs of his own before getting yanked for Fraser Ellard. Just like that, Chicago’s comfortable 3-0 lead turned into a 5-3 deficit.
The White Sox entered Tuesday with a 2-2 record – a massive improvement over last year’s nightmare season when they lost 121 games. For perspective, they didn’t even get their second win until their 11th game last year.
Maybe there’s hope in Chicago after all.
