David Sandlin weathers White Sox rite of passage to make White Sox history

Whether it's a ding on a car door or a scuff on a pair of Jordans, the first imperfection can sometimes come as a relief, because you're freed up from basing decisions around the mint condition of an inanimate object.

Byron Buxton immediately marred David Sandlin's career ERA on Wednesday by putting the second MLB pitch he threw into the left center bleachers. It could have foreshadowed further damage in short order. Maybe it should have, since an injury to Noah Schultz pressed Sandlin into the rotation before he'd ever thrown five innings for the White Sox organization.

And maybe it would have if anybody besides Buxton were the one torching him, but Buxton has hit more homers against the White Sox than any other team. Sandlin served up Buxton's 24th homer against Sox pitching, and he's the 19th different pitcher wearing the uniform. Perhaps a Kody Clemens homer sends Sandlin spiraling toward an early exit, but a Buxton homer can be regarded an inevitability, and after the game, Sandlin spun it that way.

“I feel like that kind of took the weight off almost,” Sandlin said. “I was like, ‘Man it can’t get worse than that.’ Like, let’s go now. Welcome to it, I guess.”

As it turned out, Buxton's homer was the lone imperfection on Sandlin's line. But when the rest of the line is as handsome as 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K on just 61 pitches, a blemish looks more like patina. Pitchers loathe the idea that chicks dig the long ball, but good thing they also dig scars.

Sandlin recovered from the two-pitch homer with a three-pitch strikeout to Brooks Lee, earning his first K on a nasty 93 mph changeup ...

... and that turned out to be the harbinger. Sandlin struck out Josh Bell with five impeccable pitches to bring the first inning to a close, while he'd only fan two more Twins over the remainder of the evening -- both strikes looking on curveballs -- it was for the good reason. Sandlin only averaged 10 pitches per inning, so he didn't get the typical amount of two-strike opportunities.

That's how charmed Sandlin's debut was: Any problems are good ones, and all concerns are still speculative. He's theoretically supposed to be ramping up, yet he came well short of his season-high pitch count of 71 because he'd already blasted past his previous single-game innings high by two. He gave up his share of hard contact and relied on flawless defense behind him for his near-perfect line, but you'd rather have a rookie pitcher forcing hitters to beat him instead of beating himself with walks. Not only did Sandlin avoid walking a batter, but only one Twin took him to a three-ball count.

The funniest example of Sandlin's artful dodging of questions? Going back to James' conversation with Sandlin from last week, we still don't know whether Sandlin has ironed out his issues pitching from the stretch ... because he still hasn't thrown a major league pitch from the stretch.

If that's how Sandlin has solved this particular problem, then you may as well give him the Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young right now. One can assume subsequent starts will pose greater difficulty, and test his ability to weather more prolonged exposures to adversity, and everybody will cross that bridge when he gets to it. Scrutinizing such a easy, breezy debut to hazard a guess at his real staying power and which pitches are more playable against which hitters risks looking a gift horse in the mouth.

All we can say right now is the arm definitely plays, and consistency of the execution in various situations has yet to be explored. That leaves the results, and whether you judge Sandlin by the list of White Sox pitchers who have given up a homer to Buxton ...

José Quintana, James Shields (x2), Anthony Ranaudo, Chris Sale, Dylan Covey, Derek Holland, Dane Dunning, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López (x3), Vince Velasquez, Aaron Bummer, Liam Hendriks, Johnny Cueto, Lance Lynn (x3), Steven Wilson, Prelander Berroa, Sean Burke, Cam Booser.

... or the list of White Sox pitchers to retire 18 consecutive hitters in their MLB debut ...

... all you can say is that Sandlin's career can literally go anywhere from here.