Sox spring forward with 7-4 game, series win over Athletics

Noah Schultz spearheaded a 7-4 win in his second career start | Scott Marshall-Imagn Images In such a short period of time, dare I say that Noah Schultz has really, truly, already arrived? It almost seems too good to be true, for somebody who’s gotten plenty used to even the best White Sox prospect requiring some adjustment time in the majors. But the young condor-like lefty is is looking like an exception, perhaps just a little bit in the mold of another tall, lanky lefty whose presence undoubtedly changed the current of Sox history.

As far as today’s action goes, Schultz fired five innings of one-run baseball in his second career start, punching out six while walking just one along the way. Even more excitingly, he did it in a way that makes you think there’s a lot more in the tank moving forward. The vibes were good from the outset in this one, beginning with a manufactured run in the first — courtesy of Chase Meidroth and Edgar Quero — and expanding farther with a towering Derek Hill fly ball to start what wound up being a bevy of White Sox home runs: View Link On another part of the lineup, I won’t mince words.

Miguel Vargas spent the entire series against Tampa Bay getting completely hosed on some excellent batted balls. His BABIP entering today was a a paltry . 161, which is stupid given the fact that he runs around league average in terms of swing speed and hitting the ball hard.

His BABIP actually decreased today, but that’s because his one hit wasn’t a ball in play, as he demolished a baseball out to left field in the second inning to spot the Sox a four-run early lead for the second straight day: View Link I spoke in the game thread about how Schultz was either going to need to get better at spotting his breaking balls to righties or he’ll have to figure out how to effectively use his changeup. While he did manage to break out the cambio quite a bit more, his breaking ball command remains a work in progress, as evidenced by the wildness of the breakers on his pitch chart this afternoon: The spinners weren’t quite rolling for Schultz today, but a lot of the other stuff was. That changeup I was just talking about?