The White Sox are now up to eight wins, and the opponent has pitched a position player in three of them. That's probably the best explanation for why this season feels different from 2024, even though the White Sox are following up a 41-win year with a 41-win pace.
Luis Robert Jr. provided a figurative five-run swing in the first inning, after which Sean Burke preserved the smallest of margins until Miguel Vargas came through with a literal three-run swing in the sixth. Robert then provided his own three-run swing in the seventh, and that's how Jake Bauers ended up pitching the eighth.
Robert defined this game, early and late, and on both sides of the ball. With the bases loaded and two outs after Burke walked three of the first five batters, Rhys Hoskins hit a deep drive to center that carried well beyond Robert's initial expectations. Fortunately, Hoskins hit it high enough that Robert only needed a brisk jog to keep pace with it. He had the opportunity to check for the wall thrice over the course of his route, then timed a comfortable leap into the wall to bring back a grand slam in a relaxed fashion, keeping the game scoreless.
"I don't know," Robert said in English when asked if Hoskins' drive would have cleared the fence. "All I know is I caught the ball."
"I owe Luis something," Burke said. "I don't know what I owe him. He's got a lot more money than I do, but I owe him something."
Robert then came to the plate with Chase Meidroth on third. Meidroth, who returned to the lineup with a leadoff double and moved to third on Andrew Benintendi's flyout to right, was able to lope home after Robert smashed a 107.3 grounder through the drawn-in left side, and the White Sox led 1-0.
Burke was able to settle in to complete six scoreless innings. He didn't issue a walk after the first, and he only allowed a pair of hits -- a two-out single that he erased with a pickoff, and a two-out double to Eric Haase in the fifth. Burke then fell behind 3-1 to Bryce Turang as the lineup flipped over, but dotted two perfect fastballs at the top of the zone, and Turang didn't get to see a third. He swung over the first and tipped the second into Edgar Quero's mitt.
Three hard-hit outs later, Burke had his best start since Opening Day. And as the White Sox rejoined the action after their own four-inning sabbatical, the rest of the game resembled Opening Day, too.
"Honestly just trying to let it eat in the zone," Burke said of how he recovered his control. "My misses weren't too big in the first inning, but I feel like I was kind of being a little bit too fine. Just trying to get back in the zone, flood the top half of the zone with my fastball and let the other stuff play off of it."
Chad Patrick, Burke's counterpart, came close to matching Burke, but came up an out short of a quality start and paid the price. Quero and Andrew Vaughn singled with two outs to keep the inning alive as Patrick crossed the 100-pitch mark. Pat Murphy then called for Craig Yoho, immediately identifying the proverbial Guy Who Didn't Have It. Yoho got ahead of Miguel Vargas 0-2, but after missing with a sweeper, he dropped a changeup low, but over the middle fo the plate. Vargas stayed down and scooped it up in the air, and it carried out to left for a three-run shot that made it a 4-0 game.
"Not getting swept was good," said Vargas. "I was just trying to put the ball in play and get an RBI so we extend the lead a little more. I got a good result. Happy to get a win today."
And because the Brewers bullpen had to cover seven innings the night before, the Guy Who Didn't Have It then became the Guy Who Had To Wear It. After Lenyn Sosa opened the seventh with a single, Yoho issued walks to Michael A. Taylor, Meidroth and Benintendi to make it 5-0, and Robert cleared the bases with a line-drive double over the head of Jackson Chourio in right center. Murphy might've rather had the White Sox leading by eight instead of five, because that meant that he could stop using pitchers.
"It doesn’t matter if I have a bad week or a bad month, I know the kind of player that I am," Robert said via interpreter. "I’m always working hard to do better to improve and to show the kind of player that I am. Lately the results have been there, and that’s good."
Everything was a lot simpler on Will Venable's side thanks to Burke. After potentially causing Venable to rethink the lack of an opener this time around, Burke discovered the strike zone and lived in it the rest of the game. He set the agenda with his fastball, but also could throw both breaking balls for strikes, and with BABIP on his side, he was able to complete six innings on just 94 pitches despite a 22-pitch first.
"Looking at some of the numbers too, my fastball's been good to start the year and I've been getting burnt on some of my breaking ball stuff," Burke said, "Just trying to live with my breaking balls too much has just overexposed it a little bit and guys have been able to see it more and see it better. Getting back to using my fastball and then pitching off of my fastball has been better for me."
Mike Vasil, Brandon Eisert and Jared Shuster pitched scoreless innings the rest of the way. With Shuster pitching around a leadoff error by Vargas in the ninth, Burke was able to spearhead the shutout that eluded the Sox in the season's first game.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox are tied for the league lead with five victories by seven or more runs.
*Bauers joined Nicky Lopez and Willi Castro as the position players to take the mound against the Sox this season.
*Robert added his league-leading 13th stolen base to his line, and then ran down Vinny Capra's drive to right-center without leaving his feet to end the eighth.
*Meidroth reached base twice at the top of the order, including his first MLB extra-base hit, and Robert scored him both times.
"He’s dynamic on both sides of the ball, quality at-bats and good defense," said Will Venable. "He’s going out there running hard, playing hard. He competes every moment of the game like a lot of our guys do. So it’s great to have him there setting the tone."
