Reality check: White Sox streak of pitching excellence ends with a thud
The good news is the White Sox finished their opening home stand in first place.
The bad news is all five teams in the AL Central have identical 2-4 records, and the Sox are the only one in the group that has played six home games.
On Tuesday night, the Sox were one out away from making MLB history. Just months after losing a record 121 games, the Sox nearly became the first team to get through five games without a starter allowing an earned run.
Shane Smith was fantastic in his MLB debut Tuesday, working into the sixth inning of a shutout. With two outs and no one on base, Smith walked Byron Buxton and Trevor Larnach back-to-back and left the mound. Penn Murfee came in from the bullpen, 4 singles and a hit batter later, the scoreless starter streak was over and the Sox trailed 5-3.
Most people probably figured the rug pull was going to happen, but this was absurdly abrupt.
On Wednesday, Opening Day starter Sean Burke endured a three-hour rain delay and a line drive off his leg, then gave up 6 earned runs in less than 5 innings. On the verge of doing something amazing, the White Sox ended up dropping the three-game series to the Twins with a 6-1 loss.
Was the starting pitching good enough to feel optimistic about the Sox staying competitive for a few months? Too soon to tell. Beyond Martin Perez, nobody in the Sox rotation has much of an MLB track record.
“I think we've been playing hard,” Burke said after the game. “I think the effort everybody's given has been good. The pitching's been great, the defense has been great. Today we kind of ran into a good pitcher on the other end. In general, I think we've been swinging the bats well.”
The Sox offense couldn't do much against right-hander Pablo Lopez. The lone run came on a homer by Brooks Baldwin after the Twins led 6-0.
Two early home runs spoiled Burke's second start of the season. Buxton went deep on a 3-1 pitch in the first inning, then Harrison Bader added a 3-run shot in the fourth inning to essentially put the game out of reach.
“The two that they hit were just middle-middle sliders that get hit pretty often when you throw them in those spots,” Burke said. “I think going back to like halfway through last year, my biggest thing was I want to be able to beat guys in the zone.
“I don't want to beat myself, I don't want to put guys on base. So I think just getting back to being a little bit finer with some of those pitches and not just throwing them over he heart of the plate.”
Hopefully, the White Sox didn't mind this week's cold, wet weather. Their first four road series are in Detroit, Cleveland, Boston and Minnesota.
No spring breaks for this squad. Maybe there will be great pitching weather.