CHICAGO – White Sox right-hander Shane Smith made just the sixth start of his Major League Baseball career during Milwaukee’s 6-4 victory Wednesday night at Rate Field.
But Smith, the top pick in the ‘24 Rule 5 Draft who just recently turned 25, pitched with the look of a veteran hurler. The White Sox No. 25 prospect featured that demeanor without his best stuff, but still managed to hold the Brewers to three runs (one earned) over five innings.
This game had to have a little extra meaning for Smith, who was originally signed by the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in 2021 but was then left unprotected for the White Sox to pick up in December.
“It's cool,” said Smith of pitching against Milwaukee. “Definitely want to throw well against everybody, but yeah, cool to see some faces. I saw the scout that signed me to the Brewers [Taylor Frederick] this week, so cool to connect with him. On the field once you get in there, you're not really thinking about friendships.”
“Maybe not his sharpest night, but our defense put him in a couple tough spots where he had to extend innings there and pitch more than he probably wanted,” White Sox manager Will Venable said. “We just gotta tighten up defensively behind him, but I thought Shane did a good job.”
Milwaukee scored two in the first inning, but it could have been worse. Isaac Collins doubled on a rare hit off Smith’s changeup and scored on William Contreras’ two-out single to right. Sal Frelick doubled, putting runners on second and third, but Smith should have been out of the inning on Rhys Hoskins’ grounder misplayed by third baseman Gage Workman for a run-scoring error.
Jake Bauers walked to load the bases, but Joey Ortiz flied out to left fielder Andrew Benintendi to end the threat. Smith allowed just one more run over the final four innings, striking four and walking three.
“I would say he’ll be the first one to tell you his stuff wasn’t very good today. It’s going to happen,” White Sox catcher Matt Thaiss said. “We had a talk after the first inning. For him to escape that first inning with two runs, it’s a testament to him and what he was able to do.
“He made some quality pitches toward that back half of that first inning. A lot of those times those starts can turn into five or six runs in the first, or three innings and you are out. For him to keep us in it like he did was a great job. He gave us a chance to win tonight.”
During his three Minor League seasons with the Brewers, Smith posted a 2.69 ERA over 73 appearances (19 starts). It was clear Smith’s raw stuff was good back then, but adding the changeup to his repertoire since coming to Chicago has put him atop the White Sox rotation with a 2.23 ERA.
Opponents are slashing .111/.250/.148 in 32 plate appearances against Smith’s changeup, with one extra-base hit allowed and a 35.2% whiff rate.
“Everything I hear about him and what they've done over here to develop him in terms of developing the changeup the way they have, he pulled that changeup out, and it's been a unique pitch for him,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy of Smith. “It's been a great pitch.
“We knew he threw hard, I guess, but you pull out a new pitch like that, it can change everything. These young people, I mean, it is what it is. Credit to the kid, credit to the organization for seeing it and helping him."
While the White Sox tied Wednesday’s game in the second and the fifth, they were unable to fight their way back against the Brewers’ three-run eighth inning. Miguel Vargas added a three-hit night to his recent resurgence, while Lenyn Sosa and Luis Robert Jr. contributed two hits apiece, but that game-changing knock once again eluded them.
There’s plenty of work for the White Sox to do across the board, committing three errors in their sixth straight loss at home and eighth straight overall to Milwaukee. Smith’s run clearly has just begun, but a great deal of positive information already has been reinforced about his mound work.
“My stuff is good enough,” Smith said. “Once you try to do too much, I think that's when you get in trouble. I don't mean that like I'm better, but I just had a belief in myself before I got here and then once you kind of do it, you build on that belief and just keep doing the same stuff."