Luke Shilling threw another scoreless inning out of the Winston-Salem Dash bullpen tonight, lowering his ERA to a nice, round 2.50 over 18 innings. He avoided walking a batter while striking out two, pushing both of those columns even further in the right direction (eight walks, 27 K's).
The numbers are nice, but maybe not out of the usual for a 23-year-old in High-A. The reason we're talking about Shilling is because these are the first pro innings he's thrown, even though the White Sox drafted him in the 15th round of the 2018 draft. A bad run of health luck in college culminated with a torn lat suffered shortly after he was drafted, and between the lengthy recovery and the elimination of whole leagues that could better accommodate it, the White Sox released Shilling before he threw a pitch for them.
James Fegan wrote how Shilling found his way back to the White Sox, and success that, while modest, still seems unimaginable.
A little over a year ago, it was the White Sox taking the jersey off Shilling’s back, releasing him in May 2020 along with 24 other minor leaguers. Shilling then spent a year working at FedEx and Nordstrom to get by when he was training at the Florida Baseball ARMory, and built a mound with his father back near his childhood home in Michigan for when he wasn’t.
“We built a freaking mound in my backyard, so it was pretty cool,” Shilling said of the father-son pandemic landscaping project, ultimately an act of necessity to keep him in baseball.
Nashville 5, Charlotte 4 (10 innings)
- Blake Rutherford went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Gavin Sheets went 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
- Jake Burger, 0-for-4 with a K.
- Jonathan Stiever: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Pensacola 6, Birmingham 1
- Romy Gonzalez went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Micker Adolfo walked once and struck out thrice.
- Carlos Pérez was 1-for-4.
- Jason Bilous: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 1 HR
Asheville 6, Winston-Salem 3
- Yoelqui Céspedes went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
- Lenyn Sosa singled, walked and struck out twice.
- Luis Curbelo went 2-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Duke Ellis was 0-for-5 with a K.
- Luke Shilling: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Kannapolis 5, Fayetteville 4
- Jose Rodriguez went 0-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base.
- Chase Krogman wore the golden sombrero during an 0-for-5 night.
- Bryan Ramos singled, walked thrice, struck out once and stole my base.
- Luis Mieses went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Harvin Mendoza went 3-for-5 with a strikeout.
- Caberea Weaver went 0-for-3 with an HBP and a K.
- Bailey Horn: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
