A pre-game pub crawl, a free windbreaker giveaway item, and maybe the attraction of Noah Schultz and Munetaka Murakami brought out the largest April non-home opener White Sox crowd since 2007. After spending the afternoon waiting for a reason to erupt, they were eventually treated to...newly added backup catcher Drew Romo being charged with a passed ball that allowed the go-ahead run to score after a scuffling Jordan Leasure had loaded the bases in the 10th.
That summary puts too much of the onus of a three-hour game on two individuals not tasked with leading the White Sox franchise out of the darkness, but Leasure also issued a bases loaded walk and a two-run bases loaded single to the light-hitting Nasim Núñez to essentially put the game to bed, and the alternative is describing inaction.
When Colson Montgomery struck out on Cionel Pérez sinkers to strand the winning run on second to end the ninth, it dropped the Sox to 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position on the afternoon. Tanner Murray peppering in a 10th inning sacrifice fly capped off their day at 1-for-12 with 11 runners stranded.
"There was a couple of comments I did hear," Will Venable said of hitters dealing with shadows. "It’s a problem on both sides if it is a problem at all. You have to find a way to battle the elements there with the shadows and do whatever you can to put the ball in play."
Through three starts in the majors, there has been a meaningfully different version of Schultz each time. They've all been compelling in their own right, and they keep getting deeper into games, which only builds anticipation for when the surgical command/ground ball artist version arrives. Saturday offered Schultz with the best command of his sweeper yet, and of his career-high eight strikeouts in six innings of two-run ball, the front door bender to punch out James Wood in the third was by far the prettiest.
"It felt a lot better, definitely something that we worked on this week," Schultz said of his slider. "We're going to continue to work on everything, but something that I definitely worked on a ton this week that I was happy to see it play better."
Schultz has sat 94 mph before in his life, but his diminished velocity was matched by shaky fastball command. The initial thrill of him escaping a third inning jam, with a diving stop by Montgomery completing the effort to strand a pair of runners in scoring position, was diminished by free passes putting him in the exact same spot in the very next frame.
Edgar Quero lost the team's last challenge until extras petitioning that Schultz's 3-1 sinker caught the bottom of the zone in a leadoff walk to Brady House, before some dirted sinkers and sweepers put Daylen Lile aboard behind him. After getting two quick outs on four pitches, with Joey Wiemer's nubber in front of the plate acting as a swinging bunt, Schultz doubled up on cutters to Núñez--the unexpected game MVP--who flicked the second one up the middle for a two-run single.
The top pitching prospect in the organization versus the guy who led the majors in home runs allowed last season seemed like a good matchup on paper for the White Sox, but that is why they play the game. Jake Irvin's low-90s front hip sinker absolutely flummoxed White Sox lefties, and his mid-70s curveball just baffled everyone. Andrew Benintendi and Murakami both went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in the top two spots of the batting order, and that served to set the tone just a bit.
Miguel Vargas finding his way to second base somehow (automatic double, strikeout on a passed ball followed by a throwing error, single followed by Montgomery getting plunked) was the primary means of developing offensive threats, and it finally paid off in the eighth. Where he had popped out in the same situation in the first, Everson Pereira chopped an RBI single through the six hole off old friend Gus Varland to split the deficit. Then Tanner Murray dropped the umpteenth sacrifice bunt of the afternoon to push Montgomery in place to score on Chase Meidroth's game-tying sacrifice fly to deep right-center.
Bullet points:
*Grant Taylor was only available for one inning Saturday, Venable said postgame. Also, Bryan Hudson will open for Sean Burke on Sunday.
*35,174 were in attendance. It was not warm.
*Núñez who had one RBI in 51 games in his rookie season in 2024, matched a career-high with four on Saturday.
*Leasure has allowed 10 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings, with 12 strikeouts to eight walks.
*Schultz has now walked nine in 15 1/3 innings after four more on Saturday. Everything else he's done has been pretty awesome.
*Sox hitting struck out 20 times on opening day, which is probably going to be the season-high for a while. But their 14 punchouts on Saturday is all alone for second place. Sox pitching struck out 15, for what it's worth.
*Tyler Davis had an awesome major league debut, all things considered. He struck out a pair and worked around a walk to contribute a scoreless eighth, with his hoppy mid-90s four-seamer looked just as capable of carrying the load against big league hitters as it did in the minors.
"Pretty special to do it on my mom's birthday," Davis said. "The sacrifices she's made throughout my life to get me here is everything."
