First impressions from a dreadful White Sox Opening Day

The White Sox came into this season having struck out 20 times in only three games over their entire 125-year history, and all three took extras. Their 21 strikeouts against Seattle in 1996 required 12 innings, while they struck out 20 times over 13 innings against the Yankees in 2018, and 20 times over 19 innings against Oakland in 1972.

Even their previous regulation-game record of 19 has some dignity, because it came against peak Randy Johnson, who did it all by himself during a five-hitter at the Kingdome back in 1997. It's embarrassing, sure, but the Big Unit earned 97.3 percent of all votes on his first Hall of Fame ballot because of that ability, and the White Sox had to take their turn in the construction of his legacy.

Jacob Misiorowski put the Brewers on track to strike out 20 White Sox over eight innings in their 14-2 Opening Day stomping at American Family Field on Thursday. He might not be Johnson, but he has that same capacity to humiliate in any given plate appearance. Maybe it shouldn't result in 25 whiffs over 43 swings, but sometimes any given plate appearances are consecutive.

There's no such secondary honor in having the record-setting strikeouts come at the hands of Jake Woodford in the ninth inning. Woodford only lasted two games on the 2024 White Sox, and he wasn't even a Brewer until two days earlier, as Milwaukee acquired him by trade on Tuesday as part of late-spring maneuvering. He struck out just 23 batters over 36⅓ unsuccessful innings with the Diamondbacks last year, and while he's often been better than the 6.44 ERA he posted in 2025, strikeouts are never part of his game even when everything's working for him.

And yet there he was, recording strikeouts 18, 19 and 20 on just 13 pitches to end the game. Will Venable sounded uncharacteristically disgusted at the start of his postgame comments, and maybe it's because those at-bats against Woodford were the freshest in mind.

Munetaka Murakami spent the entire game being the exception. He opened the ninth inning by swatting Woodford's center-cut 1-1 cutter into the right-field seats for his first MLB hit and homer. Over the first eight innings, he also drew two of the three walks Misiorowski issued, and was the only starter to play the whole game without striking out.

His contact issues did surface, in the sense that he failed to connect on three of his four swings against Misiorowski, all fastballs at the top or above the zone. Murakami just distinguished himself by spitting on anything that wasn't close, and making contact with everything else in the zone. That doesn't sound like much until you consider the performance from ...

Everson Pereira

... who might as well have come to the plate blindfolded. Not only did he strike out in all three of his plate appearances, but all 10 pitches he saw were strikes because he didn't allow anything to be a ball.

When I left Pereira off my one-week-out Opening Day roster projection in favor of Derek Hill and Jarred Kelenic, this was ... well, even more gruesome than what I had envisioned. Still, everybody likes the idea of using major league plate appearances to develop the younger, unproven player instead of known replacement-level types, and then you see what attempted development looks like, and it becomes a lot less attractive in a hurry.

Perhaps Pereira just drew an impossible assignment for somebody who is going to need every favorable matchup to stick, and more flattering days are ahead. Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery also struck out three times, with Montgomery theoretically having the platoon advantage against Misiorowski, so this was the day to look absolutely awful. Still, if there are more of these performances in store, the White Sox won't be as concerned about placing him on waivers.

Edgar Quero

Quero was replaced by Reese McGuire in his final plate appearance, which was just as well. He only went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts at the plate, but he had a rougher afternoon behind it.

His catcher interference in the second inning opened the door to the four-run second that knocked Shane Smith out of the game, and he suffered injury on top of insult when he took a direct hit to his Quer package on a foul ball.

He also made White Sox history by calling for the first challenge in the ABS era, overturning a ball against Bryce Turang in the first inning. The replay showed it was a strike with plenty of room to spare, but Mark Wegner might have had his view shielded by Turang's checked swing, and that's the kind of call the system is designed to correct.

Quero then succeeded on his next two challenges, and Wegner had an unimpeded view both times. In terms of using the system to his advantage, it was a triumph for Quero, but it also gave the sense that a catcher probably shouldn't have to use it that much. Quero issued the only four challenges of the game (his last with Jordan Hicks was unsuccessful), and the White Sox were the only fielding team to challenge four times on Opening Day. No other team challenged more than twice.

This jibes with Quero having the league's worst framing numbers of 57 qualified catchers per Statcast last year, because he'd be the sort of catcher who needs help preserving strikes. It especially stood out in a game where nobody else used the system. William Contreras, a plus receiver, didn't have to call for a challenge himself, but then again, the White Sox swung and missed 37 times on the afternoon. No White Sox hitter challenged either, and even if they had, Wegner should've had the right to refuse one from everybody but Murakami.

The good news? If Quero keeps up the quantity and quality, his receiving numbers stand to benefit.