White Sox fall flat in Noah Schultz’s debut

Nerves got the best of Noah Schultz in the first but he recovered to end his outing on a high note. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images It might not have been the perfect performance he hoped for, but Noah Schultz pushed through a rough first frame of his major league debut to finish his 4 1/3-inning outing strongly, despite the White Sox (6 -11) dropping the first game of the series to the Rays (9-7), 8-5. Schultz needed 33 pitches to get through the first, which could have led to a quick exit.

The lanky southpaw was able to work around Yandy Díaz with no problem to start the game, but walked the next two batters for quick trouble. The first MLB hit surrendered by Schultz was a double to left field by Ryan Vilade to drive in the first run for Tampa Bay. A safety squeeze bunt from Ben Williamson caused a whole bunch of chaos, as Noah rushed his throw home rather than getting the second out at first and letting the run score, and the Rays added a third run to the board due to Schultz’s error.

View Link First-game jitters were clearly coming into play, but Schultz was able to settle himself down and strike out Jonny DeLuca to get out of the inning. The rest of his night went more smoothly, though he allowed one more run in the top of the third; Williamson struck again, drilling an RBI double out to left for Tampa’s fourth run of the game. Schultz did facilitate a 1-2-3 inning in the second, and worked through the fourth just fine before striking out the last batter he faced.

View Link Noah tallied four strikeouts alongside four walks, and he averaged a 32% called strike plus whiff rate (CSW%). His fastball (37% CSW%) was most effective, averaging 96 mph with three strikeouts and batters whiffing five of nine times. The throwing error on the bunt was definitely a learning experience, but overall Schultz’s fastball velocity and pitch movement along with the way he was able to power through his nerves after the first inning was definitely encouraging.