It was a familiar sight for White Sox fans in the sixth inning. Holding a three-run lead, the Sox needed one out to escape the inning. But starter Shane Smith \u2014 making his major-league debut \u2014 suddenly couldn\u2019t find the strike zone, walking center fielder Byron Buxton and left fielder Trevor Larnach to end his day. He failed to get either Twins hitter to chase on his fastball.<\/p>\n
Then Penn Murfee entered but didn\u2019t fare much better. He allowed four singles before the inning ended when second baseman Edouard Julien was caught stealing home. Smith, who threw 5\u2030 innings, allowing two runs and two hits and striking out three, said his mechanics got out of whack in the sixth. Manager Will Venable said pitching coach Ethan Katz noticed Smith\u2019s velocity had dropped, but he assured them he was fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether I say I\u2019m tired or I\u2019m not, if I\u2019m missing fastballs up, that\u2019s an indication,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI wanted the last guy. Every guy wants their last guy. They don\u2019t want to be pulled in the middle of an inning.\u201d After being lights-out through four games \u2014 the starting staff\u2019s streak without an earned run allowed ended at 28 innings \u2014 pitching hurt the Sox in an 8-3 loss Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Smith \u2014 whom the Sox chose No. 1 in the 2024 Rule 5 draft \u2014 resembled the pitcher the team saw in spring training, when he had a 3.38 ERA in four starts. His first strikeout victim was three-time All-Star Carlos Correa, who swung and missed on a 92 mph changeup. \u201cIt\u2019s the day you look forward to for a very long time,\u201d Smith said of his debut. \u201cAnd to finally have it happen is pretty surreal. Just a lot of excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The key stat for Smith was four walks. If he can\u2019t harness his stuff and be more consistent in the zone, then he\u2019ll find himself in some jams. Murfee, who allowed three earned runs without recording an out, said he was ready to pitch despite Venable getting him warmed up late in the sixth. The right-hander said he should have made an adjustment after the first pitch. He didn\u2019t believe he did a good job of getting the Twins off-balance, even if some of the singles were softly hit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do all count and it\u2019s tough when you got a starter like Shane in his debut,\u201d Murfee said. \u201cHe did so well. You want to come in and do a job and minimize [the damage], get out of the inning for him.\u201d Walks were the main culprit in the loss. The Sox are a team with a small margin of error and can\u2019t give away bases. They have talked about how they need to play to win games: consistent defense, smart at-bats and efficient pitching.<\/p>\n
In the third inning, shortstop Brooks Baldwin made a great adjustment to catch first baseman Andrew Vaughn\u2019s throw as Baldwin stepped on the bag at second and rifled a throw back to Vaughn, who made a nice pick at first for the double play. In the fourth inning, Baldwin made a nifty play against catcher Ryan Jeffers to prevent a base hit \u2014 the hit had an expected batting average of .430 and was well-struck.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the most exciting brand of baseball, but it\u2019s what wins games. One bad inning cost the Sox Tuesday. It\u2019s on them to ensure they don\u2019t cost them many more.<\/p>\n
Q: Who made his major-league debut in the game?
\nA: Shane Smith made his major-league debut in the game.
\nQ: What was the final score of the game?
\nA: The final score was 8-3 in favor of the Twins.
\nQ: What was the key stat for Smith in the game?
\nA: The key stat for Smith was four walks.
\nQ: What did Murfee say about his performance in the game?
\nA: Murfee said he was ready to pitch but didn\u2019t do a good job of getting the Twins off-balance.
\nQ: What do the Sox need to do to win games?
\nA: The Sox need to play with consistent defense, smart at-bats, and efficient pitching to win games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Game It was a familiar sight for White Sox fans in the sixth inning. Holding a three-run lead, the Sox needed one out to escape the inning. But starter Shane Smith \u2014 making his major-league debut \u2014 suddenly couldn\u2019t find the strike zone, walking center fielder Byron Buxton and left fielder Trevor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/10ee4ee\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4208x2402+0+201\/resize\/1461x834!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F82%2Fc5%2Fdae3915e4f6a9ffe0657982df689%2F2207513173.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17878,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17876\/revisions\/17878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}