Noah Schultz took the loss in his MLB debut tonight, but if the first inning is any indication, he wins just by getting it out of the way.
Schultz almost didn't make it out of the first inning, throwing 33 pitches, walking two batters and committing an error that maximized the damage a bunt can do. It resulted in a 3-0 hole that eventually expanded to 4-0, and while Everson Pereira hit a three-run blast that briefly made a game of it, the bats couldn't find a second wind until it was far too late.
Schultz did gather himself, but he just had to get to the dugout, and the Rays made that difficult. He retired his first batter without incident, but he walked lefty Jonathan Aranda ahead of Junior Caminero, who walked on four pitches.
Schultz returned to the strike zone against Ryan Vilade, although a 2-2 fastball in off the plate resulted in an RBI double to left. With runners on second and third, Ben Williamson sprung a bunt on Schultz. Schultz fielded it and whipped a throw home to Edgar Quero, but the ball glanced off Quero's mitt and to the backstop, and Vilade followed all the way from second to make it a 3-0 game, with still nobody out.
"There were nerves in the first inning and nerves the whole time," Schultz said. "Got some nice words from guys in the dugout to calm down and help settle me down."
He managed to strand the runner on second with a lineout to center and his first career strikeout, and from that point forward, the remaining 3⅓ innings looked truer to form.
"Maybe a little nervous in the beginning, it's normal," said catcher Edgar Quero. "We just got ahead of the hitters with cutters a little bit more, controlling the zone a little bit more with the cutter. His confidence got a little bit better too with the fastball later and that's what we used."
That said, he did issue one more walk on the night, and that also came back to bite him. Caminero reached on five pitches with one out, and advanced to second on a Vilade single. Caminero was very active trying to time Schultz at first, and he tried to get a Lance Johnson Jump on Schultz at second, but Schultz was to step off and get an easy out at third. Still, Vilade managed to advance to second, and he came around on Williamson's double to left.
"It was really awesome, something I’ll never forget," Schultz said. "A lot of stuff to learn off of. A lot of things I was proud of. A lot of things to work on this week."
That play saddled Schultz with the loss, because even though Pereira clubbed a hanging Shane McClanahan slider over the left-center wall for a three-run shot in the third, the Sox still spent the entire evening trailing. They only had three hits through eight innings, and they didn't have another menacing moment until they were down to their final out, when Munetaka Murakami cranked a 110.8-mph scorcher that traveled fast enough to stay on the fair side of the right field foul pole for a two-run homer off old friend Yoendrys Gómez.
"I’m just really happy that the result came up today, but it’s an ongoing process of preparation and getting up at bat," Murakami said via interpreter.
Tristan Peters kept the game alive with a single that forced Kevin Cash to call on one of his high-leverage arms, but Bryan Baker got Quero to fly out to keep Colson Montgomery from striding to the plate representing the tying run.
In between the Sox's two scoring innings, the Rays bled them in a few different ways. Lucas Sims looked like he might strand a runner on third with two outs in the sixth when Nick Fortes' checked swing produced the perfect RBI bunt single to give the Rays a 5-3 lead. Two more singles made it a 6-3 game, and Brandon Eisert was needed to finish the inning.
Eisert stranded the inherited runners, but he allowed a pair of his own to score an inning later. Vilade (who had three hits and scored three runs) singled, and Williamson (who had two hits and drove in three) drove him home from first on a double that split the left-center gap. Two batters later, Jonny DeLuca proved a sac bunt unnecessary by bouncing a grounder inside third base and down the left-field line for the inning's second RBI double, which capped off Tampa Bay's scoring for the evening.
Bullet points:
*Jordan Hicks and Bryan Hudson pitched scoreless innings to close it out, but they combined to allow three hits. The Rays had 12 of those, along with six walks.
*Pereira brought everybody back up to speed on the Everson Experience within two plate appearances as the cleanup hitter. His first time up, he came to the plate after a pair of walks and struck out on three pitches. His second time up, he launched the first pitch he saw for the three-run blast.
*Meidroth and Murakami looked refreshed after the off day. Meidroth went 1-for-3 with a walk and a most unusual catcher interference -- Nick Fortes stepped on his foot -- while Murakami drew two walks before his fifth homer of the season.
*The White Sox actually had more walks (seven) than strikeouts (six), but little to show for it hitwise.
*Starting with Quero in the fifth spot, the bottom five spots in the order went 0-for-18 with three walks.
