Recap: White Sox Struggle in First Spring Training Game
By Jeremy Karll
The Chicago White Sox struggled everywhere as they fell 6-1 to the Dodgers to open Spring Training.
The Chicago White Sox started Spring Training on Thursday afternoon against one of the best pitchers in the game, Clayton Kershaw. The good news is baseball is back and it’s only the first game of spring. The bad news is the Sox’ offense looked atrocious and the pitching didn’t look much better.
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John Danks squared off against Clayton Kershaw for the first game of Spring for both teams. Both pitchers pitched two innings but with very different results. Danks allowed three runs, including a solo shot to Alex Guerrero. Kershaw was as magnificent as expected as he only allowed one hit, and struck out two in his brief outing.
Chicago started their opening day lineup, minus Adam LaRoche and they moved Adam Eaton to DH for Jacob May. Still, the White Sox were only able to score one run on a sacrifice fly by Todd Frazier that drove in Brett Lawrie.
The only player to get a hit off of Kershaw was catcher Dioner Navarro, who finished the game 2-2 with two singles. Left fielder Jerry Sands, who launched a deep double to center field, was the only other player on the team to record a hit.
It was tough to watch the Sox strike out nine times and only account for six total base runners all game. However, the Sox did have a couple of hard hit balls that got to the warning track. Nothing was dropping for them but it showed the type of power potential this lineup has this season.
As far as pitching goes, it was not as bad as the offense, but still not good by any means. Danks allowed the first three batters of the game to get on base for Los Angeles, allowing only one run in the first inning thanks to a double-play. He allowed four hits in two innings and it was clear he didn’t have his best stuff.
Zach Duke, Matt Albers, Jake Petricka, and Daniel Webb combine for four scoreless innings for the White Sox. However, Zach Putnam and Dan Jennings were hit hard by the Dodgers’ backups.
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Putnam came in for the bottom of the sixth and allowed two runs. A single by Austin Barnes drove in the first run of the inning for the Dodgers. Enrique Hernandez had a sacrifice fly to score Charlie Culberson to extend the lead to 5-1 as well. Putnam was hit hard as mostly everyone was able to take him to left field, making it a very busy inning for Jerry Sands. Putnam is expected to be back in the bullpen for the White Sox this season, although it was a rough first outing for him on Thursday.
Dan Jennings gave up a double to Rob Segedin to score Corey Brown for Los Angeles, giving them a 6-1 lead. Other than the walk and double to the previously mentioned players, Jennings had a fairly decent outing. He recorded one strikeout and was able to get out of the inning unharmed besides the one-run.
There weren’t many positives to take out from the Sox first Spring Training game. Navarro had a good showing, my Player of the Game, as he is trying to win the starting catcher role. Getting a hit from both sides of the plate showed his versatility.
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The bullpen didn’t pitch horribly, but it would have been nice not to see two key bullpen arms getting rocked in the first action of spring. It’s a long spring and a longer season, but the Sox start out Spring Training 0-1, but will look to have a better showing tomorrow afternoon against the Cleveland Indians.
Player of the Game: Dioner Navarro — 2-2, 2 1B