Walk on the wild side: Schultz can’t maintain fast start, Sox lose to Yankees

Saying Noah Schultz was pitching Monday to stay in the White Sox rotation is probably inaccurate.

There's just no obvious replacement right now, unless the Sox trade for one. But this was an important step to get the rookie left-hander back on track, especially facing, dare we say, a potential playoff opponent.

Schultz got off to a very nice start but fell into an old bad habit by walking the first two batters of the fourth inning. That sequence started a Yankees comeback, and they went on to win 9-5 at Rate Field.

There have been some interesting swings to Schultz' season. When he started the year in Triple-A Charlotte, the 6-foot-10 Oswego native was very accurate, with just 8 walks in 23 innings.

Once promoted to the big leagues, control became a problem as his walks per nine innings rose to 4.6. Schultz kept working and didn't walk anyone in his last two starts. In fact, heading into Monday’s fourth inning, he'd faced 54 batters since allowing a walk.

But free passes to Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt opened the door for the Yankees to score 4 runs and erase an early 3-0 White Sox lead. Schultz left after 3⅓ innings with 3 earned runs, 2 hits, 2 walks and 5 strikeouts on 72 pitches.

“Certainly the strikes were something that was top of mind, top of the list, to get him in the zone with his stuff being so good,” Sox manager Will Venable said before the game. “He was able to do that, but there's some shapes he's trying to get back to, whether that's more depth on the sweeper, more verty (vertical) fastball. Just kind of doing whatever he can to refine his shapes.”

Venable talked about by focusing on throwing strikes, Schultz might have toned down his stuff, which led to giving up 5 runs on 11 hits in his last start at Texas.

Schultz used a very different pitch mix in Monday's game, and threw harder. His four-seam fastball averaged 95.6 mph against the Yankees, after 94.5 in Texas. He also cut down on four-seam usage, going with the sinker and cutter most often.

“I think it's an important outing because we have to find a way to beat the Yankees,” Venable said. “Certainly in Noah's progression of development, he needs to pitch well to do that.”

Before the game the Sox returned outfielder Everson Pereira to the active roster and sent Junior Perez to Charlotte. Pereira had been out since June 17 with a concussion and went 0-for-2 at the plate Monday.

Colson Montgomery, after sitting out Sunday with a shin bruise, returned at designated hitter and went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI.

The White Sox struck quickly Monday, with a 3-run first inning. Randal Grichuk got it started with a leadoff double, Montgomery had an RBI single, then Braden Montgomery drove him in with a triple.

The Sox tied it 4-4 in the fifth inning on another Colson Montomgery RBI single. After the Yankees went ahead 5-4 in the top of the seventh, Montgomery tried to score from first on Chase Meidroth's double but was an easy out at the plate. New York then pulled away in the eighth with a 3-run homer by Ali Sanchez.

There was weather drama before the game. The Sox grounds crew seemed confident a second wave of thunderstorms would drift harmlessly over the lake and was preparing the infield as normal.

Then the wind shifted suddenly, with the flags blowing straight toward home plate. The grounds crew quickly fought the wind to get the tarp on the field, while Yankees pitchers casually warmed up in right field.

A few minutes later, the skies opened and a torrential rain began, which sent the Yankees scrambling — some ran for the dugout, others the bullpen, while one valuable team player made sure to save their high-speed camera and tripod from the deluge. The game eventually started 20 minutes late.