Game one of 162 is officially in the books. The 33,420 fans at Guaranteed Rate Field watched as the White Sox fell to their division rivals from Detroit in a tough 1-0 Opening Day loss. Thursday’s game ushered in a new era of White Sox baseball under new vice president and general manager Chris Getz. It also provided a small sample size of what fans can expect this season. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the first game of the White Sox 2024 campaign.
Surprising Start: Garrett Crochet Shines
When the White Sox named Garrett Crochet their Opening Day starter it left many fans scratching their heads. Crochet hadn’t started a game since college and was coming off of rehab from Tommy John surgery. After appearing exclusively out of the bullpen his first three years in the show, the White Sox asked Crochet in the offseason what direction he wanted to go moving forward. Crochet wanted to become a starter.
Despite looking sharp in Spring Training the expectation was that Crochett would only last three to four innings as he continued to build up his arm. Instead, he looked like a bonafide ace. The 24-year-old southpaw tossed six innings of one-run ball, allowing just five hits with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Despite allowing five hits, Crochet was able to pick apart the Tigers lineup efficiently all afternoon. It only took him 87 pitches to make it through six innings, 61 of which were thrown for strikes.
“I felt good. In my opinion, I was ready to go back out there for the seventh,” Crochet said after the game. “At least go batter to batter or something like that.”
Having only gone four ups in Spring Training, that was the only thing that kind of gave me pause. To give my team a quality start in the first one, nothing better than that.”
Crochet’s quality start puts the White Sox bullpen in an excellent position for the rest of the week. Getz opted to leave Nick Nastrini, who is presumed to be the team’s fifth starter, off the Opening Day roster in favor of extra bullpen help. The move was made because the White Sox don’t need a fifth starter until April 3rd, and Crochet wasn’t expected to go very deep into the game.
Poor Approach At The Plate Continues
The White Sox offense was expected to be bad this season and they lived up to the billing. The Sox offense was shut out in front of their home fans becoming just the second team in baseball history to have no runs, walks, or extra-base hits and ten-plus strikeouts on Opening Day.
White Sox hitters could only muster three hits, courtesy of singles from Luis Robert Jr, Andrew Vaughn, and Eloy Jimenez. What was most concerning was the seemingly poor approach at the plate. Pedro Grifol’s lineup failed to draw any walks. This has been a reoccurring issue. The White Sox struggled to draw free passes last year, ranking last in the MLB with just 377 walks. Andrew Benintendi led the team with 52.
The lack of walks continued on Thursday. Not only did nobody in the lineup draw a walk but they also allowed Tigers starter Tarik Skubal to go six innings in just 83 pitches. White Sox hitters constantly found themselves behind in the count and in a defensive mode. Home plate umpire Brian O’Nora’s loose interpretation of the strike zone didn’t help matters. For a White Sox lineup that struggled to score runs last year, they are going to need to learn to work better at-bats if they hope to win many games this season.
Kopech Battles In New Role
Micheal Kopech’s return to the bullpen on Thursday got off to a shaky start. But the 27-year-old right-hander was able to battle through the adversity and keep the Tigers off the scoreboard in the eighth inning.
Kopech was able to retire the first batter he faced but ran into trouble after he hit Kerry Crpenter in the elbow while he was ahead in the count 0-2. He then surrendered a single to Spencer Torkelson to put a runner in scoring position.
Kopech was able to alleviate some of the pressure by getting Riley Green to line out to left field but found himself back into the frying pan when he loaded the bases after Mark Canha on five pitchers that weren’t remotely close to the strike zone.
That set up Koepch for the biggest at-bats of the game. He proceeded to attack Tigers right fielder Matt Vierling with four straight fastballs. After getting ahead 1-2 in the count he buried a slider in the dirt that Vierling fanned on to escape the jam.
Kopech often got frustrated on the mound last season and struggled to limit the big inning as a starter. He was also not thrilled with being bumped from the starting rotation. However, seeing Kopech put that aside and go out and do his job despite hitting a rough patch was a positive sign.
A Clean Game
All off-season Chris Getz emphasized improving the White Sox defense. In game one, the White Sox played a relatively clean game. The White Sox did not commit an error, which was helped by the fact that the pitching staff racked up 11 strikeouts.
The White Sox bullpen was lights out with Devi Garcia, Kopech, and Dominic Leone each tossing a scoreless inning. The trio only allowed two base runners in the final three frames.
Overall Pedro Grifol was pleased with the performance.
“Great ballgame. Good pitching on both sides” Grifol said during his postgame presser. “We couldn’t get anything going offensively.’
