Shane Smith Shines in Dominant Performance Against the Royals
Shane Smith, the Chicago White Sox’s All-Star rookie right-hander, had a standout performance during Monday’s game against the Kansas City Royals. His pregame bullpen session was described as “probably the worst” of the year, but that didn’t affect his performance on the mound. Smith used the session as an opportunity to make adjustments, and it paid off.
The game started with a strong first pitch: a 95 mph fastball over the plate that resulted in a pop out by Mike Yastrzemski. The Royals struggled to find their rhythm throughout the game, managing only one hit against Smith, which came with two outs in the third inning. This marked a significant achievement for Smith, who pitched a seven-inning shutout in a 7-0 win at Rate Field.
Smith’s performance was impressive in several ways. He landed first-pitch strikes against 21 of the 23 batters he faced, retiring 20 of them. He walked one batter and allowed another to reach on a fielding error by Chase Meidroth in the third inning. His strategy focused on attacking with the fastball, getting ahead in counts, limiting walks, and trusting his defense. This approach led to a career-high seven innings, a career-low one hit, zero earned runs, one walk, and three strikeouts.
“It wasn’t long, deep at-bats. He was getting soft contact early in the count,” said White Sox manager Will Venable. “The little hard contact he gave up, we were able to defend it and did a nice job behind him. He was outstanding. That’s as good as we’ve seen him.”
Despite not having pitched into the seventh inning in his Major League career, Smith’s efficient outing meant he only threw 80 pitches through seven innings. This is consistent with his season performance, where he has thrown 80-plus pitches in 14 of his 22 starts this year.
Smith understood that his night might be over, even though he could have potentially gone deeper. “I did a short discussion with him about trying to go back out there,” Smith said. “But you know, he said, ‘You did a really good job today, you did everything we needed you to do.’ So I’m not gonna fight that.”
Venable acknowledged that Smith was capable of going deeper from a pitch-count standpoint but opted to turn the game over to left-hander Tyler Gilbert, who threw two scoreless innings. “Not so much the pitch count as much as it is pitching in the seventh inning there, which is something he hasn’t done this year,” Venable said. “We were comfortable with where the pitch count was at. Beyond that, probably had some more in the tank. That’s unchartered territory for him this year. He did his job.”
With their third-straight win, the White Sox improved to 48-83, heading into Tuesday’s game against the Royals. They will rely on left-hander Martín Pérez against Kansas City right-hander Michael Lorenzen.
Additional Highlights from the White Sox
Korey Lee’s Big Night:
White Sox catcher Korey Lee made a memorable return to the majors, hitting a home run off Noah Cameron in his first Major League at-bat in months.
Gomez’s Development:
After being claimed off waivers, Yoendrys Gomez worked in Triple-A to expand his arsenal, and now he’s pitching well for the White Sox.
Sox Defeat Twins:
The White Sox dominated the Twins, jumping all over starting pitcher Taj Bradley in a series-clinching victory.
