CHICAGO -- Mound problems for Shane Smith were basically self-inflicted when the White Sox All-Star posted an 11.29 ERA over five rough starts from June 17 leading into the All-Star break.
It was an important lesson about allowing things to eventually turn back around for the right-hander, who yielded two runs on three hits over 6 1/3 innings in Saturday's 5-3 loss to the Yankees in 11 innings. Smith's seven strikeouts helped complete a stellar month of August for the 25-year-old.
"If anybody's going to beat me, it's going to be me,” said Smith of what he learned while turning a negative into a positive.
"It's kind of how I was in that rough stretch, I was beating myself a little bit with not staying aggressive and not throwing pitches in the zone and not attacking hitters.
“Definitely a learning curve. I learned a whole bunch of stuff from that, but it's just realizing my stuff is good enough.”
His stuff was good enough in August to cover 33 2/3 innings over six starts, allowing 10 earned runs on 19 hits, of which six were home runs. He struck out 31 and walked 13.
Over his last two starts, Smith has yielded four hits in 13 1/3 innings. New York’s two runs off Smith on Saturday came via an Aaron Judge home run in the fourth and an Austin Wells home run in the seventh, as Smith attacked with his fastballs once again, inducing seven whiffs out of 44 four-seamers topping out at 97.9 mph, per Statcast, while mixing in 21 sinkers, 17 changeups and 15 curves.
"He's a power pitcher, you know?” said White Sox catcher Kyle Teel of Smith. “And I think he's starting to learn himself and the catchers are starting to learn him better too. That's just development and he's doing great."
“Shane was outstanding tonight. He was in the zone,” added manager Will Venable of Smith. “The fastball was the difference tonight. Secondary stuff was fine. But really aggressive with the fastball in the zone. Did a great job.”
Smith did do a great job, but for the 10th time in 11 starts, he came away without a victory. The White Sox slipped to a season-worst 40 games under .500 at 48-88, needing to finish 15-11 to avoid a third straight 100-loss season.
They rallied to tie the game on Chase Meidroth’s single in the seventh off Devin Williams, but with the winning run on third and one out in the 10th, Lenyn Sosa hit two nearly game-ending drives down the right and left-field lines before striking out against David Bednar. Colson Montgomery lined out to end the inning, as the White Sox fell for a fifth straight time.
"It’s a tough one, no doubt about it,” said Venable, whose team went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. “These guys battled and put themselves in a really good spot to win that ballgame and just came up short. This group all year has battled back and we’ll do the same and be ready to go tomorrow.”
"No one wants to have that result, but I believe we gave it everything we had,” Teel said. “The best part about baseball is we've got a game tomorrow."
Despite the rough finish, it was a two-Smith sort of encouraging pitching night for the White Sox organization. Shane produced his third straight strong start of at least six innings, while Hagen Smith, the No. 90 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline and No. 5 in the White Sox organization, threw five scoreless innings with two hits and one walk against eight strikeouts for Double-A Birmingham.
Lefty Noah Schultz, the No. 38 overall prospect and Chicago's No. 2, yielded two runs over three innings with one strikeout and one walk for Triple-A Charlotte on Saturday.
Along with Smith, these young burgeoning hurlers provide glimpses of hope for the future while things are going far from perfect overall at the big league level.
"[My] mechanics have been pretty simple and pretty repeatable,” said Smith of his August success. “Still working on throwing curveballs for strikes, throwing changeups for strikes.
"I've gotten away from my slider a little bit, but that's OK. I wouldn't say it's too different, but still getting comfortable.”